$100 in 1915 is worth $173 in 1925,
because prices increased 73.3% over that period, an average of
5.65% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1925
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.3%
Average inflation rate
5.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.27
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1925
17.5
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
$100 in 1915 → 1925
$173
$100 in 1925 → 1915
$57.71
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1925
Between 1915 and 1925, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 17.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 73.3%, which works out to an average of
5.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1925: the 1915 dollar
lost 42.3% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1925 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,733, and $10,000 becomes $17,327.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1925
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.66
$10.00
$17.33
$20.00
$34.65
$50.00
$86.63
$100
$173
$500
$866
$1,000
$1,733
$5,000
$8,663
$10,000
$17,327
$100,000
$173,267
$1,000,000
$1,732,673
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1925
Between 1915 and 1925, apparel rose the most, up 71.9%, while food rose the least, up 65.0%, against 73.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1925, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.65%
$173
Apparel
5.57%
$172
Food
5.14%
$165
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 1925
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.6% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1925 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1915, at end
1915–1920
14.64%
98.0%
$198
1920–1925
-2.64%
-12.5%
$173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $198 by
1920, on its way to $173 in 1925; 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 1925, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $173; the year's average CPI of 17.5 is the level
behind every 1925 figure on this page.
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.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1925: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1925/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1925. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1925/