$100 in 1915 is worth $1,822 in 2003,
because prices increased 1721.8% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,822
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1721.8%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,822
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,722
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1915 → 2003
$1,822
$100 in 2003 → 1915
$5.49
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2003
Between 1915 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1721.8%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2003: the 1915 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2003 at the same ratio, 18.22: $1,000 becomes
$18,218, and $10,000 becomes $182,178.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2003
$1.00
$18.22
$5.00
$91.09
$10.00
$182
$20.00
$364
$50.00
$911
$100
$1,822
$500
$9,109
$1,000
$18,218
$5,000
$91,089
$10,000
$182,178
$100,000
$1,821,782
$1,000,000
$18,217,822
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2003
Between 1915 and 2003, food rose the most, up 1700.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 690.2%, against 1721.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$1,822
Food
3.34%
$1,800
Apparel
2.38%
$790
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 2003
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 1915–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,822
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $293 by
1960, on its way to $1,822 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,822; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,822 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2003/