$100 in 1915 is worth $1,996 in 2006,
because prices increased 1896.0% over that period, an average of
3.34% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$1,996
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1896.0%
Average inflation rate
3.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,996
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,896
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1915 → 2006
$1,996
$100 in 2006 → 1915
$5.01
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2006
Between 1915 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1896.0%, which works out to an average of
3.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2006: the 1915 dollar
lost 95.0% of its purchasing power over
these 91 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 2006 at the same ratio, 19.96: $1,000 becomes
$19,960, and $10,000 becomes $199,604.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2006
$1.00
$19.96
$5.00
$99.80
$10.00
$200
$20.00
$399
$50.00
$998
$100
$1,996
$500
$9,980
$1,000
$19,960
$5,000
$99,802
$10,000
$199,604
$100,000
$1,996,040
$1,000,000
$19,960,396
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2006
Between 1915 and 2006, food rose the most, up 1852.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 681.0%, against 1896.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.34%
$1,996
Food
3.32%
$1,952
Apparel
2.28%
$781
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 2006
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 1915–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,996
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $293 by
1960, on its way to $1,996 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $1,996; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,996 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2006/