$100 in 1915 is worth $221 in 1947,
because prices increased 120.8% over that period, an average of
2.51% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$221
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
120.8%
Average inflation rate
2.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$221
Price difference ($100 base)
$121
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1915 → 1947
$221
$100 in 1947 → 1915
$45.29
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1947
Between 1915 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 120.8%, which works out to an average of
2.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1947: the 1915 dollar
lost 54.7% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1947 at the same ratio, 2.21: $1,000 becomes
$2,208, and $10,000 becomes $22,079.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1947
$1.00
$2.21
$5.00
$11.04
$10.00
$22.08
$20.00
$44.16
$50.00
$110
$100
$221
$500
$1,104
$1,000
$2,208
$5,000
$11,040
$10,000
$22,079
$100,000
$220,792
$1,000,000
$2,207,921
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1947
Between 1915 and 1947, apparel rose the most, up 160.8%, while food rose the least, up 141.0%, against 120.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.51%
$221
Apparel
3.04%
$261
Food
2.79%
$241
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 1947
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 1915–1947 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
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$221
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $150 by
1931, on its way to $221 in 1947; 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: 1947
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $221; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1947: $100 is worth $221 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1947/