$100 in 1915 is worth $178 in 1945,
because prices increased 78.2% over that period, an average of
1.94% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$178
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.2%
Average inflation rate
1.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$178
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.22
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1915 → 1945
$178
$100 in 1945 → 1915
$56.11
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1945
Between 1915 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.2%, which works out to an average of
1.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1945: the 1915 dollar
lost 43.9% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.78: $1,000 becomes
$1,782, and $10,000 becomes $17,822.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.78
$5.00
$8.91
$10.00
$17.82
$20.00
$35.64
$50.00
$89.11
$100
$178
$500
$891
$1,000
$1,782
$5,000
$8,911
$10,000
$17,822
$100,000
$178,218
$1,000,000
$1,782,178
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1945
Between 1915 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 105.2%, while food rose the least, up 73.0%, against 78.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.94%
$178
Apparel
2.43%
$205
Food
1.84%
$173
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 1945
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 1915–1945 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
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$178
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $165 by
1930, on its way to $178 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $178; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1945: $100 is worth $178 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1945/