$100 in 1915 is worth $143 in 1937,
because prices increased 42.6% over that period, an average of
1.63% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$143
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
42.6%
Average inflation rate
1.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$143
Price difference ($100 base)
$42.57
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1915 → 1937
$143
$100 in 1937 → 1915
$70.14
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1937
Between 1915 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 42.6%, which works out to an average of
1.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.70 buys in 1937: the 1915 dollar
lost 29.9% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1937 at the same ratio, 1.43: $1,000 becomes
$1,426, and $10,000 becomes $14,257.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1937
$1.00
$1.43
$5.00
$7.13
$10.00
$14.26
$20.00
$28.51
$50.00
$71.29
$100
$143
$500
$713
$1,000
$1,426
$5,000
$7,129
$10,000
$14,257
$100,000
$142,574
$1,000,000
$1,425,743
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1937
Between 1915 and 1937, apparel rose the most, up 43.8%, while food rose the least, up 31.0%, against 42.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.63%
$143
Apparel
1.66%
$144
Food
1.23%
$131
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 1937
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1937 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
1930–1937
-2.09%
-13.8%
$143
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $175 by
1926, on its way to $143 in 1937; 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 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $143; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1937: $100 is worth $143 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1937/