Public Accounts of Prince Edward Island, 1915 vs. 2015

The front page of the April 12, 1915 edition of The Guardian contained, in addition to news of the war, a breakdown of Prince Edward Island’s provincial spending and revenue for the previous year:

Public Accounts of PEI, 1915

The same information is available for last year, 100 years later, on the Public Accounts website, which includes this summary:

Public Accounts of PEI, 2015

In 1915 the province took in $477,841 and spent $574,964.

In dollars adjusted for inflation, that’s revenue of $9,823,157 and spending of $11,819,751.

In 2015 the province took in $1,725,913,000 and spent $1,747,187,000.

That means 2015 revenue was, in adjusted dollars, 175 times greater than in 1915, and spending was 147 times greater.

In the 1911 census, the population of PEI was 93,728 and in the 2011 census is was 140,204, an increase of only 50%.

Comments

Oliver Rukavina's picture
Oliver Rukavina on April 12, 2016 - 16:13 Permalink

1915 spending this year would cost 11,979,987.61 and the money for 1915 that took would cost this year 9,956,326.41