$100 in 1915 is worth $345 in 1968,
because prices increased 244.6% over that period, an average of
2.36% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$345
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
244.6%
Average inflation rate
2.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$345
Price difference ($100 base)
$245
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1915 → 1968
$345
$100 in 1968 → 1915
$29.02
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1968
Between 1915 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 244.6%, which works out to an average of
2.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1968: the 1915 dollar
lost 71.0% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1968 at the same ratio, 3.45: $1,000 becomes
$3,446, and $10,000 becomes $34,455.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1968
$1.00
$3.45
$5.00
$17.23
$10.00
$34.46
$20.00
$68.91
$50.00
$172
$100
$345
$500
$1,723
$1,000
$3,446
$5,000
$17,228
$10,000
$34,455
$100,000
$344,554
$1,000,000
$3,445,545
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1968
Between 1915 and 1968, food rose the most, up 253.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 251.0%, against 244.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.36%
$345
Food
2.41%
$353
Apparel
2.40%
$351
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 1968
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 1915–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$345
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $146 by
1941, on its way to $345 in 1968; 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: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $345; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1968: $100 is worth $345 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1968/