$100 in 1915 is worth $2,531 in 2019,
because prices increased 2431.3% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$2,531
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2431.3%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,531
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,431
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1915 → 2019
$2,531
$100 in 2019 → 1915
$3.95
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2019
Between 1915 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2431.3%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2019: the 1915 dollar
lost 96.0% of its purchasing power over
these 104 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 2019 at the same ratio, 25.31: $1,000 becomes
$25,313, and $10,000 becomes $253,126.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2019
$1.00
$25.31
$5.00
$127
$10.00
$253
$20.00
$506
$50.00
$1,266
$100
$2,531
$500
$12,656
$1,000
$25,313
$5,000
$126,563
$10,000
$253,126
$100,000
$2,531,257
$1,000,000
$25,312,574
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2019
Between 1915 and 2019, food rose the most, up 2483.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 710.8%, against 2431.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$2,531
Food
3.18%
$2,583
Apparel
2.03%
$811
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 2019
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 1915–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$2,531
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $312 by
1965, on its way to $2,531 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $2,531; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2019: $100 is worth $2,531 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2019/