$100 in 1915 is worth $140 in 1938,
because prices increased 39.6% over that period, an average of
1.46% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$140
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.6%
Average inflation rate
1.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$140
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.60
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1915 → 1938
$140
$100 in 1938 → 1915
$71.63
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1938
Between 1915 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.6%, which works out to an average of
1.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1938: the 1915 dollar
lost 28.4% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1938 at the same ratio, 1.40: $1,000 becomes
$1,396, and $10,000 becomes $13,960.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1938
$1.00
$1.40
$5.00
$6.98
$10.00
$13.96
$20.00
$27.92
$50.00
$69.80
$100
$140
$500
$698
$1,000
$1,396
$5,000
$6,980
$10,000
$13,960
$100,000
$139,604
$1,000,000
$1,396,040
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1938
Between 1915 and 1938, apparel rose the most, up 43.1%, while food rose the least, up 21.0%, against 39.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.46%
$140
Apparel
1.57%
$143
Food
0.83%
$121
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 1938
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 1915–1938 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
1930–1938
-2.09%
-15.6%
$140
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $175 by
1926, on its way to $140 in 1938; 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 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $140; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1938: $100 is worth $140 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1938/