$100 in 1914 is worth $2,370 in 2015,
because prices increased 2270.2% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$2,370
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2270.2%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,370
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,270
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1914 → 2015
$2,370
$100 in 2015 → 1914
$4.22
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2015
Between 1914 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2270.2%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2015: the 1914 dollar
lost 95.8% of its purchasing power over
these 101 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 2015 at the same ratio, 23.70: $1,000 becomes
$23,702, and $10,000 becomes $237,017.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2015
$1.00
$23.70
$5.00
$119
$10.00
$237
$20.00
$474
$50.00
$1,185
$100
$2,370
$500
$11,851
$1,000
$23,702
$5,000
$118,509
$10,000
$237,017
$100,000
$2,370,170
$1,000,000
$23,701,700
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2015
Between 1914 and 2015, food rose the most, up 2323.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 739.4%, against 2270.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$2,370
Food
3.21%
$2,424
Apparel
2.13%
$839
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–2015 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$388
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$824
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,307
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,722
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$2,181
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$2,370
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $310 by
1964, on its way to $2,370 in 2015; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $2,370; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2015: $100 is worth $2,370 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2015/