$100 in 1915 is worth $265 in 1955,
because prices increased 165.3% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$265
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
165.3%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$265
Price difference ($100 base)
$165
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1915 → 1955
$265
$100 in 1955 → 1915
$37.69
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1955
Between 1915 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 165.3%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1955: the 1915 dollar
lost 62.3% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1955 at the same ratio, 2.65: $1,000 becomes
$2,653, and $10,000 becomes $26,535.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1955
$1.00
$2.65
$5.00
$13.27
$10.00
$26.53
$20.00
$53.07
$50.00
$133
$100
$265
$500
$1,327
$1,000
$2,653
$5,000
$13,267
$10,000
$26,535
$100,000
$265,347
$1,000,000
$2,653,465
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1955
Between 1915 and 1955, apparel rose the most, up 180.4%, while food rose the least, up 178.0%, against 165.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$265
Apparel
2.61%
$280
Food
2.59%
$278
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 1955
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 1915–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$265
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $136 by
1935, on its way to $265 in 1955; 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: 1955
In 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $265; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1955: $100 is worth $265 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1955/