$100 in 1915 is worth $257 in 1951,
because prices increased 157.4% over that period, an average of
2.66% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$257
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
157.4%
Average inflation rate
2.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$257
Price difference ($100 base)
$157
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1915 → 1951
$257
$100 in 1951 → 1915
$38.85
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1951
Between 1915 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 157.4%, which works out to an average of
2.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1951: the 1915 dollar
lost 61.2% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1951 at the same ratio, 2.57: $1,000 becomes
$2,574, and $10,000 becomes $25,743.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1951
$1.00
$2.57
$5.00
$12.87
$10.00
$25.74
$20.00
$51.49
$50.00
$129
$100
$257
$500
$1,287
$1,000
$2,574
$5,000
$12,871
$10,000
$25,743
$100,000
$257,426
$1,000,000
$2,574,257
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1951
Between 1915 and 1951, apparel rose the most, up 186.9%, while food rose the least, up 182.0%, against 157.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.66%
$257
Apparel
2.97%
$287
Food
2.92%
$282
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 1951
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 1915–1951 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$239
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$257
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $129 by
1933, on its way to $257 in 1951; 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: 1951
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $257; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1951: $100 is worth $257 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1951/