$100 in 1915 is worth $129 in 1933,
because prices increased 28.7% over that period, an average of
1.41% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$129
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
28.7%
Average inflation rate
1.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$129
Price difference ($100 base)
$28.71
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1915 → 1933
$129
$100 in 1933 → 1915
$77.69
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1933
Between 1915 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices increased 28.7%, which works out to an average of
1.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1933: the 1915 dollar
lost 22.3% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1933 at the same ratio, 1.29: $1,000 becomes
$1,287, and $10,000 becomes $12,871.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1933
$1.00
$1.29
$5.00
$6.44
$10.00
$12.87
$20.00
$25.74
$50.00
$64.36
$100
$129
$500
$644
$1,000
$1,287
$5,000
$6,436
$10,000
$12,871
$100,000
$128,713
$1,000,000
$1,287,129
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1933
Between 1915 and 1933, apparel rose the most, up 22.9%, while food rose the least, up 4.0%, against 28.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.41%
$129
Apparel
1.15%
$123
Food
0.22%
$104
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 1933
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1915, at end
1915–1920
14.64%
98.0%
$198
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$165
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $169 by
1924, on its way to $129 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $129; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1933: $100 is worth $129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1933/