$100 in 1915 is worth $1,509 in 1995,
because prices increased 1408.9% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,509
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1408.9%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,509
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,409
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1915 → 1995
$1,509
$100 in 1995 → 1915
$6.63
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1995
Between 1915 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1408.9%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1995: the 1915 dollar
lost 93.4% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 1995 at the same ratio, 15.09: $1,000 becomes
$15,089, and $10,000 becomes $150,891.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1995
$1.00
$15.09
$5.00
$75.45
$10.00
$151
$20.00
$302
$50.00
$754
$100
$1,509
$500
$7,545
$1,000
$15,089
$5,000
$75,446
$10,000
$150,891
$100,000
$1,508,911
$1,000,000
$15,089,109
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1995
Between 1915 and 1995, food rose the most, up 1384.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 762.7%, against 1408.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$1,509
Food
3.43%
$1,484
Apparel
2.73%
$863
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 1995
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 1915–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,509
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $265 by
1955, on its way to $1,509 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,509; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,509 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1995/