$100 in 1915 is worth $719 in 1979,
because prices increased 618.8% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$719
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
618.8%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$719
Price difference ($100 base)
$619
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1915 → 1979
$719
$100 in 1979 → 1915
$13.91
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1979
Between 1915 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 618.8%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1979: the 1915 dollar
lost 86.1% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 1979 at the same ratio, 7.19: $1,000 becomes
$7,188, and $10,000 becomes $71,881.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1979
$1.00
$7.19
$5.00
$35.94
$10.00
$71.88
$20.00
$144
$50.00
$359
$100
$719
$500
$3,594
$1,000
$7,188
$5,000
$35,941
$10,000
$71,881
$100,000
$718,812
$1,000,000
$7,188,119
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1979
Between 1915 and 1979, food rose the most, up 699.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 454.9%, against 618.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$719
Food
3.30%
$799
Apparel
2.71%
$555
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 1979
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 1915–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$719
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $178 by
1945, on its way to $719 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $719; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1979: $100 is worth $719 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1979/