$100 in 1915 is worth $198 in 1920,
because prices increased 98.0% over that period, an average of
14.64% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$198
in 1920
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.0%
Average inflation rate
14.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$198
Price difference ($100 base)
$98.02
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1920
20
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
$100 in 1915 → 1920
$198
$100 in 1920 → 1915
$50.50
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1920
Between 1915 and 1920, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 20.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.0%, which works out to an average of
14.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1920: the 1915 dollar
lost 49.5% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1920 at the same ratio, 1.98: $1,000 becomes
$1,980, and $10,000 becomes $19,802.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1920
$1.00
$1.98
$5.00
$9.90
$10.00
$19.80
$20.00
$39.60
$50.00
$99.01
$100
$198
$500
$990
$1,000
$1,980
$5,000
$9,901
$10,000
$19,802
$100,000
$198,020
$1,000,000
$1,980,198
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1920
Between 1915 and 1920, apparel rose the most, up 181.7%, while food rose the least, up 110.0%, against 98.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1920, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
14.64%
$198
Apparel
23.01%
$282
Food
16.00%
$210
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 $127 by
1917, on its way to $198 in 1920; 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 1920, prices rose 15.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $198; the year's average CPI of 20 is the level
behind every 1920 figure on this page.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1920: $100 is worth $198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1920/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1920. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1920/