$100 in 1915 is worth $139 in 1940,
because prices increased 38.6% over that period, an average of
1.31% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1940
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
38.6%
Average inflation rate
1.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$38.61
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1940
14
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
$100 in 1915 → 1940
$139
$100 in 1940 → 1915
$72.14
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1940
Between 1915 and 1940, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 14.
Cumulatively, prices increased 38.6%, which works out to an average of
1.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1940: the 1915 dollar
lost 27.9% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1940 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,386, and $10,000 becomes $13,861.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1940
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.93
$10.00
$13.86
$20.00
$27.72
$50.00
$69.31
$100
$139
$500
$693
$1,000
$1,386
$5,000
$6,931
$10,000
$13,861
$100,000
$138,614
$1,000,000
$1,386,139
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1940
Between 1915 and 1940, apparel rose the most, up 42.5%, while food rose the least, up 20.0%, against 38.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1940, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.31%
$139
Apparel
1.43%
$142
Food
0.73%
$120
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 1940
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 14.64% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1915–1940 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $172 by
1927, on its way to $139 in 1940; 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 1940, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 14 is the level
behind every 1940 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1940: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1940/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1940. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1940/