$100 in 1915 is worth $146 in 1941,
because prices increased 45.5% over that period, an average of
1.45% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$146
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
45.5%
Average inflation rate
1.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$146
Price difference ($100 base)
$45.54
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1915 → 1941
$146
$100 in 1941 → 1915
$68.71
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1941
Between 1915 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 45.5%, which works out to an average of
1.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1941: the 1915 dollar
lost 31.3% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1941 at the same ratio, 1.46: $1,000 becomes
$1,455, and $10,000 becomes $14,554.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1941
$1.00
$1.46
$5.00
$7.28
$10.00
$14.55
$20.00
$29.11
$50.00
$72.77
$100
$146
$500
$728
$1,000
$1,455
$5,000
$7,277
$10,000
$14,554
$100,000
$145,545
$1,000,000
$1,455,446
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1941
Between 1915 and 1941, apparel rose the most, up 49.0%, while food rose the least, up 31.0%, against 45.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.45%
$146
Apparel
1.55%
$149
Food
1.04%
$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 1941
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 1915–1941 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
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$146
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $169 by
1928, on its way to $146 in 1941; 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 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $146; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1941: $100 is worth $146 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1941/