$100 in 1915 is worth $2,273 in 2012,
because prices increased 2173.2% over that period, an average of
3.27% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$2,273
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2173.2%
Average inflation rate
3.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,273
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,173
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1915 → 2012
$2,273
$100 in 2012 → 1915
$4.40
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2012
Between 1915 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2173.2%, which works out to an average of
3.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2012: the 1915 dollar
lost 95.6% of its purchasing power over
these 97 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 2012 at the same ratio, 22.73: $1,000 becomes
$22,732, and $10,000 becomes $227,321.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2012
$1.00
$22.73
$5.00
$114
$10.00
$227
$20.00
$455
$50.00
$1,137
$100
$2,273
$500
$11,366
$1,000
$22,732
$5,000
$113,660
$10,000
$227,321
$100,000
$2,273,208
$1,000,000
$22,732,079
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2012
Between 1915 and 2012, food rose the most, up 2237.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 725.3%, against 2173.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.27%
$2,273
Food
3.30%
$2,338
Apparel
2.20%
$825
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 2012
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 1915–2012 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$2,159
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$2,273
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $312 by
1965, on its way to $2,273 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $2,273; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2012: $100 is worth $2,273 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2012/