$100 in 1915 is worth $1,065 in 1985,
because prices increased 965.3% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,065
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
965.3%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,065
Price difference ($100 base)
$965
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1915 → 1985
$1,065
$100 in 1985 → 1915
$9.39
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1985
Between 1915 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 965.3%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1985: the 1915 dollar
lost 90.6% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1985 at the same ratio, 10.65: $1,000 becomes
$10,653, and $10,000 becomes $106,535.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1985
$1.00
$10.65
$5.00
$53.27
$10.00
$107
$20.00
$213
$50.00
$533
$100
$1,065
$500
$5,327
$1,000
$10,653
$5,000
$53,267
$10,000
$106,535
$100,000
$1,065,347
$1,000,000
$10,653,465
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1985
Between 1915 and 1985, food rose the most, up 956.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 586.3%, against 965.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$1,065
Food
3.42%
$1,056
Apparel
2.79%
$686
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 1985
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 1915–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$1,065
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $239 by
1950, on its way to $1,065 in 1985; 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: 1985
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,065; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1985: $100 is worth $1,065 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1985/