The year 2015 · in the United States and the world
What happened in 2015
The cost of living, the songs at #1, the news and the people in charge in 2015, rebuilt from public records. Born that year? Your exact day has its own story.
Gallon of gas
$2.45
$4.48 today
President
Barack Obama
Biggest #1
“Uptown Funk!”
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars
$1 then is
$1.42
in today’s money
01 · Cost of living
How much things cost in 2015
U.S. average prices for 2015, next to the latest official figure (Sep 2026). By the Consumer Price Index, $1 in 2015 buys what $1.42 buys today.
GENERAL STORE
U.S. AVERAGE PRICES · 2015
GALLON OF GAS COSTS 1.8× WHAT IT DID
Yearly averages · wage and stamp on July 1
Gas: drivers paid $2.45 for a gallon of regular in 2015. Filling a 15-gallon tank cost about $36.72, against roughly $67.23 now.
Groceries: one hour at the federal minimum wage ($7.25) bought about 5 pounds of white bread in 2015. Today it buys about 3.
Housing: the median new home sold for $294,150, or about 20 years of full-time work at the minimum wage. Today the median is $393,300.
Mail: a first-class stamp cost 49¢. It is 78¢ now.
Stocks: the S&P 500 now stands about 3.7× its average level in 2015 (price only, before dividends and inflation).
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average prices, Census Bureau and Department of Labor viaFRED; USPS rate history; S&P from Robert Shiller’s public data.
02 · On the radio
The #1 songs of 2015
9 songs reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015. The one that stayed longest:
“Uptown Funk!”
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars · 14 weeks at #1 in 2015
Tap the cover for a 30-second preview
- Jan 3Blank SpaceTaylor Swift2 wks
- Jan 17Uptown Funk!Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars14 wks
- Apr 25See You AgainWiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth12 wks
- Jun 6Bad BloodTaylor Swift Featuring Kendrick Lamar1 wk
- Jul 25CheerleaderOMI6 wks
- Aug 22Can't Feel My FaceThe Weeknd3 wks
- Sep 19What Do You Mean?Justin Bieber1 wk
- Oct 3The HillsThe Weeknd6 wks
- Nov 14HelloAdele7 wks
Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 2015; weeks count only those in 2015.Find the #1 song on your birthday →
Your day, not just your year
Born in 2015? Meet your day.
The weather in your city, the moon over it and the song on the radio the day you arrived in 2015.
See your exact day →The weather, the sky and the #1 song from that exact day, in your city
03 · The news
Major events of 2015
Moments from 2015 that are still remembered, in date order.
- Jan 7Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others.
- Mar 24The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately crashed the aircraft, an Airbus A320, in a mass murder–suicide in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
- Jun 16American businessman Donald Trump announces his campaign to run for President of the United States in the upcoming election.
- Jun 26The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the right of same-sex couples to marry is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Jul 14NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System.
- Jul 20The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.
- Jul 23NASA announces discovery of Kepler-452b by the Kepler space telescope.
- Jul 29The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island.
- Aug 5United States Environmental Protection Agency personnel accidentally caused a spillage of 3 million gallons (11 million litres) of mine waste water and tailings trapped inside the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.
- Sep 9Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria.
- Oct 1The American cargo vessel SS El Faro sinks with all of its 33 crew after steaming into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin.
- Oct 29China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years.
- Nov 13Coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris perpetrated by the Islamic State killed 130 people and injured 413 others.
- Dec 2In San Bernardino, California, a married couple carried out a mass shooting at a Christmas party before fleeing and dying in a shootout with police.
Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.
04 · Who was in charge
The president and world leaders in 2015
U.S. President
Barack Obama
UK Prime Minister
David Cameron
Prime Minister of Canada
Stephen Harper → Justin Trudeau
President of France
François Hollande
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel
Prime Minister of Japan
Shinzō Abe
President of Russia
Vladimir Putin
Everyone who held the office at some point in 2015, from Wikidata.
05 · At the movies and on TV
Films and TV of 2015
Best Picture at the 2015 Oscars
Birdman
honouring films of 2014
The 2015 film that won next spring
Spotlight
Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars
American films released
- Inside Out
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
- The Revenant
- The Martian
- Minions
New on American TV
- Better Call Saul
- Mr. Robot
- Narcos
- Daredevil
A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.
06 · Born in 2015
Famous people born in 2015
Anyone born in 2015 belongs to the Generation Alpha (2013–2024).
Princess Charlotte of WalesBritish royal, and third in line to the British throne · May 2
From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick answers
Quick answers about 2015
How much was gas in 2015?
A gallon of regular unleaded gas cost $2.45 on average in 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest national average is $4.48 (Sep 2026), about 1.8× as much.
What was the #1 song of 2015?
“Uptown Funk!” by Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars spent the most weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015: 14 weeks. 9 different songs reached #1 that year.
Who was president in 2015?
Barack Obama was President of the United States for all of 2015.
How much is $1 from 2015 worth today?
Prices have risen about 1.4× since 2015, so $1 then buys what about $1.42 buys today, by the Consumer Price Index (Sep 2026). A first-class stamp cost 49¢ in 2015.
Your day, not just your year
2015 was the year. Which day was yours?
Pick your birthday and city. We’ll rebuild that day: the weather outside, the sky overhead, the song on the radio and what a dollar bought.
See your exact day →The weather, the sky and the #1 song from that exact day, in your city