$100 in 1915 is worth $600 in 1977,
because prices increased 500.0% over that period, an average of
2.93% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$600
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
500.0%
Average inflation rate
2.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$600
Price difference ($100 base)
$500
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1915 → 1977
$600
$100 in 1977 → 1915
$16.67
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1977
Between 1915 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 500.0%, which works out to an average of
2.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1977: the 1915 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1977 at the same ratio, 6.00: $1,000 becomes
$6,000, and $10,000 becomes $60,000.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1977
$1.00
$6.00
$5.00
$30.00
$10.00
$60.00
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$300
$100
$600
$500
$3,000
$1,000
$6,000
$5,000
$30,000
$10,000
$60,000
$100,000
$600,000
$1,000,000
$6,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1977
Between 1915 and 1977, food rose the most, up 555.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 413.7%, against 500.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.93%
$600
Food
3.08%
$655
Apparel
2.67%
$514
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 1977
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 1915–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$600
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $178 by
1945, on its way to $600 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $600; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1977: $100 is worth $600 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1977/