$100 in 1915 is worth $986 in 1983,
because prices increased 886.1% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$986
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
886.1%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$986
Price difference ($100 base)
$886
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1915 → 1983
$986
$100 in 1983 → 1915
$10.14
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1983
Between 1915 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 886.1%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1983: the 1915 dollar
lost 89.9% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1983 at the same ratio, 9.86: $1,000 becomes
$9,861, and $10,000 becomes $98,614.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1983
$1.00
$9.86
$5.00
$49.31
$10.00
$98.61
$20.00
$197
$50.00
$493
$100
$986
$500
$4,931
$1,000
$9,861
$5,000
$49,307
$10,000
$98,614
$100,000
$986,139
$1,000,000
$9,861,386
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1983
Between 1915 and 1983, food rose the most, up 894.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 554.9%, against 886.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$986
Food
3.43%
$994
Apparel
2.80%
$655
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 1983
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 1915–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$986
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $239 by
1950, on its way to $986 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $986; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1983: $100 is worth $986 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1983/