$100 in 1915 is worth $816 in 1980,
because prices increased 715.8% over that period, an average of
3.28% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$816
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
715.8%
Average inflation rate
3.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$816
Price difference ($100 base)
$716
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1915 → 1980
$816
$100 in 1980 → 1915
$12.26
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1980
Between 1915 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 715.8%, which works out to an average of
3.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1980: the 1915 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1980 at the same ratio, 8.16: $1,000 becomes
$8,158, and $10,000 becomes $81,584.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1980
$1.00
$8.16
$5.00
$40.79
$10.00
$81.58
$20.00
$163
$50.00
$408
$100
$816
$500
$4,079
$1,000
$8,158
$5,000
$40,792
$10,000
$81,584
$100,000
$815,842
$1,000,000
$8,158,416
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1980
Between 1915 and 1980, food rose the most, up 768.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 494.1%, against 715.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.28%
$816
Food
3.38%
$868
Apparel
2.78%
$594
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 1980
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 1915–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$816
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $178 by
1945, on its way to $816 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $816; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1980: $100 is worth $816 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1980/