$100 in 1915 is worth $264 in 1953,
because prices increased 164.4% over that period, an average of
2.59% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$264
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
164.4%
Average inflation rate
2.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$264
Price difference ($100 base)
$164
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1915 → 1953
$264
$100 in 1953 → 1915
$37.83
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1953
Between 1915 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 164.4%, which works out to an average of
2.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1953: the 1915 dollar
lost 62.2% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1953 at the same ratio, 2.64: $1,000 becomes
$2,644, and $10,000 becomes $26,436.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1953
$1.00
$2.64
$5.00
$13.22
$10.00
$26.44
$20.00
$52.87
$50.00
$132
$100
$264
$500
$1,322
$1,000
$2,644
$5,000
$13,218
$10,000
$26,436
$100,000
$264,356
$1,000,000
$2,643,564
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1953
Between 1915 and 1953, food rose the most, up 183.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 181.7%, against 164.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.59%
$264
Food
2.78%
$283
Apparel
2.76%
$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 1953
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 1915–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$264
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $129 by
1933, on its way to $264 in 1953; 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: 1953
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $264; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $264 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1953/