$100 in 1915 is worth $278 in 1957,
because prices increased 178.2% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$278
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
178.2%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$278
Price difference ($100 base)
$178
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1915 → 1957
$278
$100 in 1957 → 1915
$35.94
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1957
Between 1915 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 178.2%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1957: the 1915 dollar
lost 64.1% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.78: $1,000 becomes
$2,782, and $10,000 becomes $27,822.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.78
$5.00
$13.91
$10.00
$27.82
$20.00
$55.64
$50.00
$139
$100
$278
$500
$1,391
$1,000
$2,782
$5,000
$13,911
$10,000
$27,822
$100,000
$278,218
$1,000,000
$2,782,178
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1957
Between 1915 and 1957, apparel rose the most, up 190.8%, while food rose the least, up 189.0%, against 178.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$278
Apparel
2.57%
$291
Food
2.56%
$289
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 1957
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 1915–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$278
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $136 by
1935, on its way to $278 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $278; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1957: $100 is worth $278 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1957/