$100 in 1915 is worth $169 in 1924,
because prices increased 69.3% over that period, an average of
6.03% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$169
in 1924
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.3%
Average inflation rate
6.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$169
Price difference ($100 base)
$69.31
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1924
17.1
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
$100 in 1915 → 1924
$169
$100 in 1924 → 1915
$59.06
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1924
Between 1915 and 1924, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.3%, which works out to an average of
6.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1924: the 1915 dollar
lost 40.9% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1924 at the same ratio, 1.69: $1,000 becomes
$1,693, and $10,000 becomes $16,931.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1924
$1.00
$1.69
$5.00
$8.47
$10.00
$16.93
$20.00
$33.86
$50.00
$84.65
$100
$169
$500
$847
$1,000
$1,693
$5,000
$8,465
$10,000
$16,931
$100,000
$169,307
$1,000,000
$1,693,069
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1924
Between 1915 and 1924, apparel rose the most, up 75.2%, while food rose the least, up 52.0%, against 69.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1924, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.03%
$169
Apparel
6.43%
$175
Food
4.76%
$152
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–).
Decade by decade: 1915 to 1924
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1920s (3.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1924 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1915, at end
1915–1920
14.64%
98.0%
$198
1920–1924
-3.84%
-14.5%
$169
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $171 by
1919, on its way to $169 in 1924; 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.
In 1924, prices rose 0.0% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $169; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1924 figure on this page.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1924: $100 is worth $169 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1924/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1924. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1924/