$100 in 1915 is worth $1,614 in 1998,
because prices increased 1513.9% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,614
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1513.9%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,614
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,514
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1915 → 1998
$1,614
$100 in 1998 → 1915
$6.20
What happened to prices between 1915 and 1998
Between 1915 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1513.9%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1998: the 1915 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 1998 at the same ratio, 16.14: $1,000 becomes
$16,139, and $10,000 becomes $161,386.
Amount in 1915
Value in 1998
$1.00
$16.14
$5.00
$80.69
$10.00
$161
$20.00
$323
$50.00
$807
$100
$1,614
$500
$8,069
$1,000
$16,139
$5,000
$80,693
$10,000
$161,386
$100,000
$1,613,861
$1,000,000
$16,138,614
Inflation by spending category, 1915–1998
Between 1915 and 1998, food rose the most, up 1507.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 769.3%, against 1513.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$1,614
Food
3.40%
$1,607
Apparel
2.64%
$869
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 1998
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 1915–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,614
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $265 by
1955, on its way to $1,614 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,614; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,614 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-1998/