$100 in 1915 is worth $138 in 1936,
because prices increased 37.6% over that period, an average of
1.53% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.6%
Average inflation rate
1.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.62
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1915 → 1936
$138
$100 in 1936 → 1915
$72.66
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1936
Between 1915 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.6%, which works out to an average of
1.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1936: the 1915 dollar
lost 27.3% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1936 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,376, and $10,000 becomes $13,762.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1936
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.88
$10.00
$13.76
$20.00
$27.52
$50.00
$68.81
$100
$138
$500
$688
$1,000
$1,376
$5,000
$6,881
$10,000
$13,762
$100,000
$137,624
$1,000,000
$1,376,238
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1936
Between 1915 and 1936, apparel rose the most, up 37.3%, while food rose the least, up 26.0%, against 37.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.53%
$138
Apparel
1.52%
$137
Food
1.11%
$126
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 1936
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1936 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
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $173 by
1925, on its way to $138 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1936: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1936/