$100 in 1915 is worth $2,427 in 2017,
because prices increased 2326.9% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$2,427
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2326.9%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,427
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,327
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1915 → 2017
$2,427
$100 in 2017 → 1915
$4.12
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2017
Between 1915 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2326.9%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2017: the 1915 dollar
lost 95.9% of its purchasing power over
these 102 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 2017 at the same ratio, 24.27: $1,000 becomes
$24,269, and $10,000 becomes $242,693.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2017
$1.00
$24.27
$5.00
$121
$10.00
$243
$20.00
$485
$50.00
$1,213
$100
$2,427
$500
$12,135
$1,000
$24,269
$5,000
$121,347
$10,000
$242,693
$100,000
$2,426,931
$1,000,000
$24,269,307
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2017
Between 1915 and 2017, food rose the most, up 2400.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 721.0%, against 2326.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$2,427
Food
3.21%
$2,501
Apparel
2.09%
$821
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 2017
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 1915–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$2,427
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $312 by
1965, on its way to $2,427 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $2,427; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2017: $100 is worth $2,427 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2017/