$100 in 1915 is worth $900 in 1981,
because prices increased 800.0% over that period, an average of
3.39% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$900
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
800.0%
Average inflation rate
3.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$900
Price difference ($100 base)
$800
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1915 → 1981
$900
$100 in 1981 → 1915
$11.11
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1981
Between 1915 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 800.0%, which works out to an average of
3.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1981: the 1915 dollar
lost 88.9% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 1981 at the same ratio, 9.00: $1,000 becomes
$9,000, and $10,000 becomes $90,000.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1981
$1.00
$9.00
$5.00
$45.00
$10.00
$90.00
$20.00
$180
$50.00
$450
$100
$900
$500
$4,500
$1,000
$9,000
$5,000
$45,000
$10,000
$90,000
$100,000
$900,000
$1,000,000
$9,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1981
Between 1915 and 1981, food rose the most, up 836.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 522.9%, against 800.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.39%
$900
Food
3.45%
$936
Apparel
2.81%
$623
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 1981
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 1915–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$900
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $239 by
1950, on its way to $900 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $900; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1981: $100 is worth $900 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1981/