$100 in 1915 is worth $1,085 in 1986,
because prices increased 985.1% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,085
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
985.1%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,085
Price difference ($100 base)
$985
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1915 → 1986
$1,085
$100 in 1986 → 1915
$9.22
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1986
Between 1915 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 985.1%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1986: the 1915 dollar
lost 90.8% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 1986 at the same ratio, 10.85: $1,000 becomes
$10,851, and $10,000 becomes $108,515.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1986
$1.00
$10.85
$5.00
$54.26
$10.00
$109
$20.00
$217
$50.00
$543
$100
$1,085
$500
$5,426
$1,000
$10,851
$5,000
$54,257
$10,000
$108,515
$100,000
$1,085,149
$1,000,000
$10,851,485
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1986
Between 1915 and 1986, food rose the most, up 990.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 592.2%, against 985.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$1,085
Food
3.42%
$1,090
Apparel
2.76%
$692
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 1986
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 1915–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$1,085
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $239 by
1950, on its way to $1,085 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,085; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1986: $100 is worth $1,085 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1986/