$100 in 1915 is worth $293 in 1960,
because prices increased 193.1% over that period, an average of
2.42% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$293
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
193.1%
Average inflation rate
2.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$293
Price difference ($100 base)
$193
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1915 → 1960
$293
$100 in 1960 → 1915
$34.12
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1960
Between 1915 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 193.1%, which works out to an average of
2.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1960: the 1915 dollar
lost 65.9% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1960 at the same ratio, 2.93: $1,000 becomes
$2,931, and $10,000 becomes $29,307.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1960
$1.00
$2.93
$5.00
$14.65
$10.00
$29.31
$20.00
$58.61
$50.00
$147
$100
$293
$500
$1,465
$1,000
$2,931
$5,000
$14,653
$10,000
$29,307
$100,000
$293,069
$1,000,000
$2,930,693
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1960
Between 1915 and 1960, food rose the most, up 200.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 198.7%, against 193.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.42%
$293
Food
2.47%
$300
Apparel
2.46%
$299
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 1960
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 1915–1960 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$293
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $143 by
1937, on its way to $293 in 1960; 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: 1960
In 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $293; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1960: $100 is worth $293 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1960/