$100 in 1915 is worth $286 in 1958,
because prices increased 186.1% over that period, an average of
2.48% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$286
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
186.1%
Average inflation rate
2.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$286
Price difference ($100 base)
$186
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1915 → 1958
$286
$100 in 1958 → 1915
$34.95
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1958
Between 1915 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 186.1%, which works out to an average of
2.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1958: the 1915 dollar
lost 65.1% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1958 at the same ratio, 2.86: $1,000 becomes
$2,861, and $10,000 becomes $28,614.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1958
$1.00
$2.86
$5.00
$14.31
$10.00
$28.61
$20.00
$57.23
$50.00
$143
$100
$286
$500
$1,431
$1,000
$2,861
$5,000
$14,307
$10,000
$28,614
$100,000
$286,139
$1,000,000
$2,861,386
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1958
Between 1915 and 1958, food rose the most, up 202.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.5%, against 186.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.48%
$286
Food
2.60%
$302
Apparel
2.52%
$292
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 1958
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 1915–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$286
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $143 by
1937, on its way to $286 in 1958; 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: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $286; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1958: $100 is worth $286 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1958/