$100 in 1915 is worth $3,017 in 2023,
because prices increased 2916.9% over that period, an average of
3.20% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$3,017
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2916.9%
Average inflation rate
3.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$3,017
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,917
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1915 → 2023
$3,017
$100 in 2023 → 1915
$3.31
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2023
Between 1915 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2916.9%, which works out to an average of
3.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.03 buys in 2023: the 1915 dollar
lost 96.7% of its purchasing power over
these 108 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 2023 at the same ratio, 30.17: $1,000 becomes
$30,169, and $10,000 becomes $301,685.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2023
$1.00
$30.17
$5.00
$151
$10.00
$302
$20.00
$603
$50.00
$1,508
$100
$3,017
$500
$15,084
$1,000
$30,169
$5,000
$150,843
$10,000
$301,685
$100,000
$3,016,851
$1,000,000
$30,168,515
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2023
Between 1915 and 2023, food rose the most, up 3129.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 753.5%, against 2916.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.20%
$3,017
Food
3.27%
$3,230
Apparel
2.01%
$853
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 2023
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 1915–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$2,562
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$3,017
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $384 by
1970, on its way to $3,017 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $3,017; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2023: $100 is worth $3,017 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2023/