$100 in 1915 is worth $646 in 1978,
because prices increased 545.5% over that period, an average of
3.00% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$646
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
545.5%
Average inflation rate
3.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$646
Price difference ($100 base)
$546
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1915 → 1978
$646
$100 in 1978 → 1915
$15.49
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1978
Between 1915 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 545.5%, which works out to an average of
3.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1978: the 1915 dollar
lost 84.5% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 1978 at the same ratio, 6.46: $1,000 becomes
$6,455, and $10,000 becomes $64,554.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1978
$1.00
$6.46
$5.00
$32.28
$10.00
$64.55
$20.00
$129
$50.00
$323
$100
$646
$500
$3,228
$1,000
$6,455
$5,000
$32,277
$10,000
$64,554
$100,000
$645,545
$1,000,000
$6,455,446
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1978
Between 1915 and 1978, food rose the most, up 620.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 432.0%, against 545.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.00%
$646
Food
3.18%
$720
Apparel
2.69%
$532
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 1978
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 1915–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$646
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $178 by
1945, on its way to $646 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $646; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1978: $100 is worth $646 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1978/