$100 in 1915 is worth $1,431 in 1993,
because prices increased 1330.7% over that period, an average of
3.47% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,431
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1330.7%
Average inflation rate
3.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,431
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,331
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1915 → 1993
$1,431
$100 in 1993 → 1915
$6.99
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1993
Between 1915 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1330.7%, which works out to an average of
3.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1993: the 1915 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 1993 at the same ratio, 14.31: $1,000 becomes
$14,307, and $10,000 becomes $143,069.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1993
$1.00
$14.31
$5.00
$71.53
$10.00
$143
$20.00
$286
$50.00
$715
$100
$1,431
$500
$7,153
$1,000
$14,307
$5,000
$71,535
$10,000
$143,069
$100,000
$1,430,693
$1,000,000
$14,306,931
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1993
Between 1915 and 1993, food rose the most, up 1309.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 773.9%, against 1330.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.47%
$1,431
Food
3.45%
$1,409
Apparel
2.82%
$874
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 1993
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 1915–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$1,431
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $265 by
1955, on its way to $1,431 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,431; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1993: $100 is worth $1,431 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1993/