$100 in 1915 is worth $172 in 1927,
because prices increased 72.3% over that period, an average of
4.64% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1927
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.3%
Average inflation rate
4.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.28
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1927
17.4
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
$100 in 1915 → 1927
$172
$100 in 1927 → 1915
$58.05
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1927
Between 1915 and 1927, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 17.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.3%, which works out to an average of
4.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1927: the 1915 dollar
lost 42.0% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1927 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,723, and $10,000 becomes $17,228.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1927
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.61
$10.00
$17.23
$20.00
$34.46
$50.00
$86.14
$100
$172
$500
$861
$1,000
$1,723
$5,000
$8,614
$10,000
$17,228
$100,000
$172,277
$1,000,000
$1,722,772
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1927
Between 1915 and 1927, apparel rose the most, up 65.4%, while food rose the least, up 64.0%, against 72.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1927, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.64%
$172
Apparel
4.28%
$165
Food
4.21%
$164
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 1927
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1927 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1915, at end
1915–1920
14.64%
98.0%
$198
1920–1927
-1.97%
-13.0%
$172
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $177 by
1921, on its way to $172 in 1927; 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 1927, prices fell 1.7% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 17.4 is the level
behind every 1927 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1927: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1927/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1927. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1927/