$100 in 1915 is worth $1,467 in 1994,
because prices increased 1367.3% over that period, an average of
3.46% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,467
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1367.3%
Average inflation rate
3.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,467
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,367
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1915 → 1994
$1,467
$100 in 1994 → 1915
$6.82
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1994
Between 1915 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1367.3%, which works out to an average of
3.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1994: the 1915 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 1994 at the same ratio, 14.67: $1,000 becomes
$14,673, and $10,000 becomes $146,733.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1994
$1.00
$14.67
$5.00
$73.37
$10.00
$147
$20.00
$293
$50.00
$734
$100
$1,467
$500
$7,337
$1,000
$14,673
$5,000
$73,366
$10,000
$146,733
$100,000
$1,467,327
$1,000,000
$14,673,267
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1994
Between 1915 and 1994, food rose the most, up 1343.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 771.9%, against 1367.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.46%
$1,467
Food
3.44%
$1,443
Apparel
2.78%
$872
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 1994
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 1915–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,467
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $265 by
1955, on its way to $1,467 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,467; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,467 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1994/