$100 in 1915 is worth $193 in 1946,
because prices increased 93.1% over that period, an average of
2.14% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$193
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
93.1%
Average inflation rate
2.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$193
Price difference ($100 base)
$93.07
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1915 → 1946
$193
$100 in 1946 → 1915
$51.79
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1946
Between 1915 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 93.1%, which works out to an average of
2.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1946: the 1915 dollar
lost 48.2% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.93: $1,000 becomes
$1,931, and $10,000 becomes $19,307.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.93
$5.00
$9.65
$10.00
$19.31
$20.00
$38.61
$50.00
$96.53
$100
$193
$500
$965
$1,000
$1,931
$5,000
$9,653
$10,000
$19,307
$100,000
$193,069
$1,000,000
$1,930,693
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1946
Between 1915 and 1946, apparel rose the most, up 124.8%, while food rose the least, up 98.0%, against 93.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.14%
$193
Apparel
2.65%
$225
Food
2.23%
$198
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 1946
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 1915–1946 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
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$193
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $150 by
1931, on its way to $193 in 1946; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1946
In 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $193; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1946: $100 is worth $193 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1946/