$100 in 1915 is worth $303 in 1963,
because prices increased 203.0% over that period, an average of
2.34% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$303
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
203.0%
Average inflation rate
2.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$303
Price difference ($100 base)
$203
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1915 → 1963
$303
$100 in 1963 → 1915
$33.01
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1963
Between 1915 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 203.0%, which works out to an average of
2.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1963: the 1915 dollar
lost 67.0% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1963 at the same ratio, 3.03: $1,000 becomes
$3,030, and $10,000 becomes $30,297.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1963
$1.00
$3.03
$5.00
$15.15
$10.00
$30.30
$20.00
$60.59
$50.00
$151
$100
$303
$500
$1,515
$1,000
$3,030
$5,000
$15,149
$10,000
$30,297
$100,000
$302,970
$1,000,000
$3,029,703
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1963
Between 1915 and 1963, food rose the most, up 211.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 206.5%, against 203.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.34%
$303
Food
2.39%
$311
Apparel
2.36%
$307
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 1963
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 1915–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$303
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $138 by
1939, on its way to $303 in 1963; 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: 1963
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $303; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1963: $100 is worth $303 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1963/