$100 in 1915 is worth $1,349 in 1991,
because prices increased 1248.5% over that period, an average of
3.48% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,349
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1248.5%
Average inflation rate
3.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,349
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,249
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1915 → 1991
$1,349
$100 in 1991 → 1915
$7.42
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1991
Between 1915 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1248.5%, which works out to an average of
3.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1991: the 1915 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 1991 at the same ratio, 13.49: $1,000 becomes
$13,485, and $10,000 becomes $134,851.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1991
$1.00
$13.49
$5.00
$67.43
$10.00
$135
$20.00
$270
$50.00
$674
$100
$1,349
$500
$6,743
$1,000
$13,485
$5,000
$67,426
$10,000
$134,851
$100,000
$1,348,515
$1,000,000
$13,485,149
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1991
Between 1915 and 1991, food rose the most, up 1263.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 741.2%, against 1248.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.48%
$1,349
Food
3.50%
$1,363
Apparel
2.84%
$841
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 1991
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 1915–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,294
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$1,349
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $265 by
1955, on its way to $1,349 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,349; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1991: $100 is worth $1,349 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1991/