$100 in 1915 is worth $1,781 in 2002,
because prices increased 1681.2% over that period, an average of
3.37% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,781
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1681.2%
Average inflation rate
3.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,781
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,681
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1915 → 2002
$1,781
$100 in 2002 → 1915
$5.61
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2002
Between 1915 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1681.2%, which works out to an average of
3.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2002: the 1915 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2002 at the same ratio, 17.81: $1,000 becomes
$17,812, and $10,000 becomes $178,119.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2002
$1.00
$17.81
$5.00
$89.06
$10.00
$178
$20.00
$356
$50.00
$891
$100
$1,781
$500
$8,906
$1,000
$17,812
$5,000
$89,059
$10,000
$178,119
$100,000
$1,781,188
$1,000,000
$17,811,881
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2002
Between 1915 and 2002, food rose the most, up 1662.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 710.5%, against 1681.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.37%
$1,781
Food
3.35%
$1,762
Apparel
2.43%
$810
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 2002
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 1915–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,705
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,781
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $293 by
1960, on its way to $1,781 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,781; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,781 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2002/