$100 in 1915 is worth $440 in 1973,
because prices increased 339.6% over that period, an average of
2.59% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$440
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
339.6%
Average inflation rate
2.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$440
Price difference ($100 base)
$340
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1915 → 1973
$440
$100 in 1973 → 1915
$22.75
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1973
Between 1915 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 339.6%, which works out to an average of
2.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1973: the 1915 dollar
lost 77.3% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1973 at the same ratio, 4.40: $1,000 becomes
$4,396, and $10,000 becomes $43,960.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1973
$1.00
$4.40
$5.00
$21.98
$10.00
$43.96
$20.00
$87.92
$50.00
$220
$100
$440
$500
$2,198
$1,000
$4,396
$5,000
$21,980
$10,000
$43,960
$100,000
$439,604
$1,000,000
$4,396,040
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1973
Between 1915 and 1973, food rose the most, up 382.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 322.2%, against 339.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.59%
$440
Food
2.75%
$482
Apparel
2.51%
$422
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 1973
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 1915–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$440
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $171 by
1943, on its way to $440 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $440; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1973: $100 is worth $440 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1973/