$100 in 1915 is worth $1,553 in 1996,
because prices increased 1453.5% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,553
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1453.5%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,553
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,453
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1915 → 1996
$1,553
$100 in 1996 → 1915
$6.44
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1996
Between 1915 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1453.5%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1996: the 1915 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 1996 at the same ratio, 15.53: $1,000 becomes
$15,535, and $10,000 becomes $155,347.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1996
$1.00
$15.53
$5.00
$77.67
$10.00
$155
$20.00
$311
$50.00
$777
$100
$1,553
$500
$7,767
$1,000
$15,535
$5,000
$77,673
$10,000
$155,347
$100,000
$1,553,465
$1,000,000
$15,534,653
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1996
Between 1915 and 1996, food rose the most, up 1433.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 760.8%, against 1453.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$1,553
Food
3.43%
$1,533
Apparel
2.69%
$861
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 1996
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 1915–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,553
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $265 by
1955, on its way to $1,553 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,553; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,553 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1996/