$100 in 1915 is worth $1,171 in 1988,
because prices increased 1071.3% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,171
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1071.3%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,171
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,071
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1915 → 1988
$1,171
$100 in 1988 → 1915
$8.54
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1988
Between 1915 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1071.3%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1988: the 1915 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1988 at the same ratio, 11.71: $1,000 becomes
$11,713, and $10,000 becomes $117,129.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1988
$1.00
$11.71
$5.00
$58.56
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$234
$50.00
$586
$100
$1,171
$500
$5,856
$1,000
$11,713
$5,000
$58,564
$10,000
$117,129
$100,000
$1,171,287
$1,000,000
$11,712,871
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1988
Between 1915 and 1988, food rose the most, up 1082.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 654.2%, against 1071.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$1,171
Food
3.44%
$1,182
Apparel
2.81%
$754
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 1988
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 1915–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$1,171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $239 by
1950, on its way to $1,171 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,171; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1988: $100 is worth $1,171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1988/