$100 in 1925 is worth $1,548 in 2021,
because prices increased 1448.4% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$1,548
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1448.4%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,548
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,448
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1925 → 2021
$1,548
$100 in 2021 → 1925
$6.46
What happened to prices between 1925 and 2021
Between 1925 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1448.4%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2021: the 1925 dollar
lost 93.5% of its purchasing power over
these 96 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1925, the CPI’s largest single-year increase
since the deflationary swings of the early 1920s, though still mild next to
the double-digit inflation of the World War I years. The country’s cultural
fault lines were on full display that summer in Dayton, Tennessee, where
high school teacher John Scopes was tried July 10-21 for violating a state
law against teaching evolution, a case that drew national press coverage and
pitted prosecutor William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence
Darrow. Real estate speculation, meanwhile, peaked in Florida, where buyers
flipped undeveloped land in the Miami area on thin down payments, driving
prices far above what the land itself could support; the bubble would
collapse the following year. Detroit reshuffled that June too: Walter
Chrysler reorganized the struggling Maxwell Motor Company into Chrysler
Corporation, the start of what would become one of the American auto
industry’s “Big Three.” First-class postage held at 2 cents for the sixth
straight year.
Every 1925 amount converts to 2021 at the same ratio, 15.48: $1,000 becomes
$15,484, and $10,000 becomes $154,840.
Amount in 1925
Value in 2021
$1.00
$15.48
$5.00
$77.42
$10.00
$155
$20.00
$310
$50.00
$774
$100
$1,548
$500
$7,742
$1,000
$15,484
$5,000
$77,420
$10,000
$154,840
$100,000
$1,548,400
$1,000,000
$15,484,000
Inflation by spending category, 1925–2021
Between 1925 and 2021, food rose the most, up 1583.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 360.0%, against 1448.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$1,548
Food
2.98%
$1,683
Apparel
1.60%
$460
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1925: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1925 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–2021 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1925, at end
1925–1930
-0.93%
-4.6%
$95.43
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.00
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$138
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$169
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$222
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$471
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$747
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$984
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,246
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,479
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,548
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $307 by
1975, on its way to $1,548 in 2021; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $1,548; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,548 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2021/