$100 in 1915 is worth $363 in 1969,
because prices increased 263.4% over that period, an average of
2.42% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$363
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
263.4%
Average inflation rate
2.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$363
Price difference ($100 base)
$263
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1915 → 1969
$363
$100 in 1969 → 1915
$27.52
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1969
Between 1915 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 263.4%, which works out to an average of
2.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1969: the 1915 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1969 at the same ratio, 3.63: $1,000 becomes
$3,634, and $10,000 becomes $36,337.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1969
$1.00
$3.63
$5.00
$18.17
$10.00
$36.34
$20.00
$72.67
$50.00
$182
$100
$363
$500
$1,817
$1,000
$3,634
$5,000
$18,168
$10,000
$36,337
$100,000
$363,366
$1,000,000
$3,633,663
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1969
Between 1915 and 1969, apparel rose the most, up 271.2%, while food rose the least, up 271.0%, against 263.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.42%
$363
Apparel
2.46%
$371
Food
2.46%
$371
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 1969
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 1915–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$363
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $146 by
1941, on its way to $363 in 1969; 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: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $363; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1969: $100 is worth $363 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1969/