$100 in 1915 is worth $312 in 1965,
because prices increased 211.9% over that period, an average of
2.30% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$312
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
211.9%
Average inflation rate
2.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$312
Price difference ($100 base)
$212
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1915 → 1965
$312
$100 in 1965 → 1915
$32.06
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1965
Between 1915 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 211.9%, which works out to an average of
2.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1965: the 1915 dollar
lost 67.9% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1965 at the same ratio, 3.12: $1,000 becomes
$3,119, and $10,000 becomes $31,188.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1965
$1.00
$3.12
$5.00
$15.59
$10.00
$31.19
$20.00
$62.38
$50.00
$156
$100
$312
$500
$1,559
$1,000
$3,119
$5,000
$15,594
$10,000
$31,188
$100,000
$311,881
$1,000,000
$3,118,812
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1965
Between 1915 and 1965, food rose the most, up 222.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 212.4%, against 211.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.30%
$312
Food
2.37%
$322
Apparel
2.30%
$312
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 1965
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 1915–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$312
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $138 by
1939, on its way to $312 in 1965; 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: 1965
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $312; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1965: $100 is worth $312 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1965/