$100 in 1915 is worth $3,106 in 2024,
because prices increased 3005.8% over that period, an average of
3.20% a year.
$100 in 1915 has
the same buying power as
$3,106
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
3005.8%
Average inflation rate
3.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$3,106
Price difference ($100 base)
$3,006
CPI in 1915
10.1
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1915
1.00%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1915 → 2024
$3,106
$100 in 2024 → 1915
$3.22
What happened to prices between 1915 and 2024
Between 1915 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.1 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 3005.8%, which works out to an average of
3.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1915 bought what
$0.03 buys in 2024: the 1915 dollar
lost 96.8% of its purchasing power over
these 109 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 2024 at the same ratio, 31.06: $1,000 becomes
$31,058, and $10,000 becomes $310,583.
Amount in 1915
Value in 2024
$1.00
$31.06
$5.00
$155
$10.00
$311
$20.00
$621
$50.00
$1,553
$100
$3,106
$500
$15,529
$1,000
$31,058
$5,000
$155,292
$10,000
$310,583
$100,000
$3,105,832
$1,000,000
$31,058,317
Inflation by spending category, 1915–2024
Between 1915 and 2024, food rose the most, up 3202.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 759.4%, against 3005.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1915
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1915 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.20%
$3,106
Food
3.26%
$3,303
Apparel
1.99%
$859
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 2024
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 1915–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$3,106
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1915
$100 from 1915 had already become $384 by
1970, on its way to $3,106 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1915 had the buying
power of $3,106; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1915 to 2024: $100 is worth $3,106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1915 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1915-to-2024/