$100 in 1915 is worth $1,029 in 1984,
because prices increased 928.7% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,029
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
928.7%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,029
Price difference ($100 base)
$929
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1915 → 1984
$1,029
$100 in 1984 → 1915
$9.72
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1984
Between 1915 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 928.7%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1984: the 1915 dollar
lost 90.3% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1984 at the same ratio, 10.29: $1,000 becomes
$10,287, and $10,000 becomes $102,871.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1984
$1.00
$10.29
$5.00
$51.44
$10.00
$103
$20.00
$206
$50.00
$514
$100
$1,029
$500
$5,144
$1,000
$10,287
$5,000
$51,436
$10,000
$102,871
$100,000
$1,028,713
$1,000,000
$10,287,129
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1984
Between 1915 and 1984, food rose the most, up 932.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 567.3%, against 928.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$1,029
Food
3.44%
$1,032
Apparel
2.79%
$667
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 1984
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 1915–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$1,029
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $239 by
1950, on its way to $1,029 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,029; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1984: $100 is worth $1,029 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1984/