$100 in 1939 is worth $117 in 1942,
because prices increased 17.3% over that period, an average of
5.45% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$117
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
17.3%
Average inflation rate
5.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$117
Price difference ($100 base)
$17.27
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1939 → 1942
$117
$100 in 1942 → 1939
$85.28
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1942
Between 1939 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 17.3%, which works out to an average of
5.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.85 buys in 1942: the 1939 dollar
lost 14.7% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
Every 1939 amount converts to 1942 at the same ratio, 1.17: $1,000 becomes
$1,173, and $10,000 becomes $11,727.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1942
$1.00
$1.17
$5.00
$5.86
$10.00
$11.73
$20.00
$23.45
$50.00
$58.63
$100
$117
$500
$586
$1,000
$1,173
$5,000
$5,863
$10,000
$11,727
$100,000
$117,266
$1,000,000
$1,172,662
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1942
Between 1939 and 1942, food rose the most, up 30.5%, while medical care rose the least, up 3.9%, against 17.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.45%
$117
Food
9.28%
$131
Apparel
7.32%
$124
Transportation
3.82%
$112
Medical care
1.28%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1939: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1939 to 1942
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.90% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1942 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $101 by
1940, on its way to $117 in 1942; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1940.
In 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $117; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1942: $100 is worth $117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1942/