$100 in 1915 is worth $414 in 1972,
because prices increased 313.9% over that period, an average of
2.52% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$414
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
313.9%
Average inflation rate
2.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$414
Price difference ($100 base)
$314
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1915 → 1972
$414
$100 in 1972 → 1915
$24.16
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1972
Between 1915 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 313.9%, which works out to an average of
2.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1972: the 1915 dollar
lost 75.8% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1972 at the same ratio, 4.14: $1,000 becomes
$4,139, and $10,000 becomes $41,386.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1972
$1.00
$4.14
$5.00
$20.69
$10.00
$41.39
$20.00
$82.77
$50.00
$207
$100
$414
$500
$2,069
$1,000
$4,139
$5,000
$20,693
$10,000
$41,386
$100,000
$413,861
$1,000,000
$4,138,614
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1972
Between 1915 and 1972, food rose the most, up 321.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 307.2%, against 313.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.52%
$414
Food
2.55%
$421
Apparel
2.49%
$407
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 1972
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 1915–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$414
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $171 by
1943, on its way to $414 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $414; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1972: $100 is worth $414 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1972/