$100 in 1915 is worth $288 in 1959,
because prices increased 188.1% over that period, an average of
2.43% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$288
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
188.1%
Average inflation rate
2.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$288
Price difference ($100 base)
$188
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1915 → 1959
$288
$100 in 1959 → 1915
$34.71
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1959
Between 1915 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 188.1%, which works out to an average of
2.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1959: the 1915 dollar
lost 65.3% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1959 at the same ratio, 2.88: $1,000 becomes
$2,881, and $10,000 becomes $28,812.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1959
$1.00
$2.88
$5.00
$14.41
$10.00
$28.81
$20.00
$57.62
$50.00
$144
$100
$288
$500
$1,441
$1,000
$2,881
$5,000
$14,406
$10,000
$28,812
$100,000
$288,119
$1,000,000
$2,881,188
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1959
Between 1915 and 1959, food rose the most, up 197.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 194.1%, against 188.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.43%
$288
Food
2.50%
$297
Apparel
2.48%
$294
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 1959
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 1915–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$288
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $143 by
1937, on its way to $288 in 1959; 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: 1959
In 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $288; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1959: $100 is worth $288 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1959/