$100 in 1915 is worth $296 in 1961,
because prices increased 196.0% over that period, an average of
2.39% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$296
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
196.0%
Average inflation rate
2.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$296
Price difference ($100 base)
$196
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1915 → 1961
$296
$100 in 1961 → 1915
$33.78
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1961
Between 1915 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 196.0%, which works out to an average of
2.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1961: the 1915 dollar
lost 66.2% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1961 at the same ratio, 2.96: $1,000 becomes
$2,960, and $10,000 becomes $29,604.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1961
$1.00
$2.96
$5.00
$14.80
$10.00
$29.60
$20.00
$59.21
$50.00
$148
$100
$296
$500
$1,480
$1,000
$2,960
$5,000
$14,802
$10,000
$29,604
$100,000
$296,040
$1,000,000
$2,960,396
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1961
Between 1915 and 1961, food rose the most, up 204.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 201.3%, against 196.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.39%
$296
Food
2.45%
$304
Apparel
2.43%
$301
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 1961
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 1915–1961 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
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$296
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $143 by
1937, on its way to $296 in 1961; 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: 1961
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $296; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1961: $100 is worth $296 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1961/