$100 in 1915 is worth $138 in 1939,
because prices increased 37.6% over that period, an average of
1.34% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.6%
Average inflation rate
1.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.62
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1915 → 1939
$138
$100 in 1939 → 1915
$72.66
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1939
Between 1915 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.6%, which works out to an average of
1.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1939: the 1915 dollar
lost 27.3% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1939 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,376, and $10,000 becomes $13,762.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1939
$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, 1915–1939
Between 1915 and 1939, apparel rose the most, up 41.2%, while food rose the least, up 18.0%, against 37.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.34%
$138
Apparel
1.45%
$141
Food
0.69%
$118
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 1939
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1930s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1939 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
1930–1939
-2.02%
-16.8%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $172 by
1927, on its way to $138 in 1939; 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 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1939: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1939/