$100 in 1915 is worth $401 in 1971,
because prices increased 301.0% over that period, an average of
2.51% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$401
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
301.0%
Average inflation rate
2.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$401
Price difference ($100 base)
$301
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1915 → 1971
$401
$100 in 1971 → 1915
$24.94
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1971
Between 1915 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 301.0%, which works out to an average of
2.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1971: the 1915 dollar
lost 75.1% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1971 at the same ratio, 4.01: $1,000 becomes
$4,010, and $10,000 becomes $40,099.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1971
$1.00
$4.01
$5.00
$20.05
$10.00
$40.10
$20.00
$80.20
$50.00
$200
$100
$401
$500
$2,005
$1,000
$4,010
$5,000
$20,050
$10,000
$40,099
$100,000
$400,990
$1,000,000
$4,009,901
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1971
Between 1915 and 1971, food rose the most, up 304.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 299.3%, against 301.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.51%
$401
Food
2.52%
$404
Apparel
2.50%
$399
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 1971
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 1915–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$384
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$401
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $171 by
1943, on its way to $401 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $401; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1971: $100 is worth $401 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1971/