$100 in 1915 is worth $533 in 1975,
because prices increased 432.7% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$533
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
432.7%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$533
Price difference ($100 base)
$433
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1915 → 1975
$533
$100 in 1975 → 1915
$18.77
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1975
Between 1915 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 432.7%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1975: the 1915 dollar
lost 81.2% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1975 at the same ratio, 5.33: $1,000 becomes
$5,327, and $10,000 becomes $53,267.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1975
$1.00
$5.33
$5.00
$26.63
$10.00
$53.27
$20.00
$107
$50.00
$266
$100
$533
$500
$2,663
$1,000
$5,327
$5,000
$26,634
$10,000
$53,267
$100,000
$532,673
$1,000,000
$5,326,733
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1975
Between 1915 and 1975, food rose the most, up 498.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 373.9%, against 432.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$533
Food
3.03%
$598
Apparel
2.63%
$474
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 1975
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 1915–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$533
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $178 by
1945, on its way to $533 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $533; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1975: $100 is worth $533 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1975/