$100 in 1915 is worth $563 in 1976,
because prices increased 463.4% over that period, an average of
2.87% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$563
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
463.4%
Average inflation rate
2.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$563
Price difference ($100 base)
$463
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1915 → 1976
$563
$100 in 1976 → 1915
$17.75
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1976
Between 1915 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 463.4%, which works out to an average of
2.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1976: the 1915 dollar
lost 82.2% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1976 at the same ratio, 5.63: $1,000 becomes
$5,634, and $10,000 becomes $56,337.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1976
$1.00
$5.63
$5.00
$28.17
$10.00
$56.34
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$282
$100
$563
$500
$2,817
$1,000
$5,634
$5,000
$28,168
$10,000
$56,337
$100,000
$563,366
$1,000,000
$5,633,663
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1976
Between 1915 and 1976, food rose the most, up 516.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 391.5%, against 463.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.87%
$563
Food
3.03%
$616
Apparel
2.64%
$492
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 1976
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 1915–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$563
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $178 by
1945, on its way to $563 in 1976; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $563; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1976: $100 is worth $563 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1976/