$100 in 1915 is worth $150 in 1918,
because prices increased 49.5% over that period, an average of
14.35% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$150
in 1918
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
49.5%
Average inflation rate
14.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$150
Price difference ($100 base)
$49.50
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1918
15.1
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
$100 in 1915 → 1918
$150
$100 in 1918 → 1915
$66.89
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1918
Between 1915 and 1918, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 15.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 49.5%, which works out to an average of
14.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1918: the 1915 dollar
lost 33.1% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1915, the second straight year of near-flat
inflation before the wartime price surges of 1916 through 1918. The year’s
defining event had nothing to do with prices directly: a German submarine
sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast on May 7, killing 128
Americans and hardening U.S. opinion against Germany two years before the
country entered the war. Economically, 1915 was a turning point of a
different kind. A recession that had dragged on since 1913 began lifting as
Britain and France placed growing orders for steel, munitions, and other war
materiel with American manufacturers, and U.S. exports to the Allied powers
climbed sharply through the year. That demand would keep building through
1916, eventually pulling prices up with it. On the regulatory
side, the Federal Trade Commission opened for business in March, taking on
enforcement of the Clayton Antitrust Act that Congress had passed the
previous fall. A first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, unchanged since 1885
and still two years from its first wartime increase.
Every 1915 amount converts to 1918 at the same ratio, 1.50: $1,000 becomes
$1,495, and $10,000 becomes $14,950.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1918
$1.00
$1.50
$5.00
$7.48
$10.00
$14.95
$20.00
$29.90
$50.00
$74.75
$100
$150
$500
$748
$1,000
$1,495
$5,000
$7,475
$10,000
$14,950
$100,000
$149,505
$1,000,000
$1,495,050
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1918
Between 1915 and 1918, apparel rose the most, up 78.4%, while food rose the least, up 67.0%, against 49.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1918, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
14.35%
$150
Apparel
21.29%
$178
Food
18.64%
$167
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1915: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $108 by
1916, on its way to $150 in 1918; 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 the smallest rise was 7.9% in 1916.
In 1918, prices rose 18.0% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $150; the year's average CPI of 15.1 is the level
behind every 1918 figure on this page.
1918 brought the steepest annual price increase the CPI had recorded:
consumer prices rose 18.0% for the year, edging out 1917’s already sharp
17.4% as the economy stayed at full wartime mobilization for most of the
year. A first-class stamp cost 3 cents, up from 2 cents the previous
November under the War Revenue Act’s wartime tax increases. The war itself
ended on November 11, when Germany signed an armistice with the Allied
powers after more than four years of fighting in Europe, but the inflation
built up over a year and a half of mobilization did not disappear along with
the fighting. The bigger public health story that year was the influenza
pandemic that reached the U.S. in a mild spring wave and then returned that
fall in a far deadlier form, eventually killing roughly 675,000 Americans,
more than the country’s combat losses in the war. It hit factories, docks,
and shops alongside households, adding disruption to an economy already
strained by wartime demand. Prices would keep climbing even after the
armistice, into the postwar surge of 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1918: $100 is worth $150 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1918/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1918. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1918/