$100 in 1939 is worth $124 in 1943,
because prices increased 24.5% over that period, an average of
5.62% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$124
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
24.5%
Average inflation rate
5.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$124
Price difference ($100 base)
$24.46
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1939 → 1943
$124
$100 in 1943 → 1939
$80.35
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1943
Between 1939 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 24.5%, which works out to an average of
5.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.80 buys in 1943: the 1939 dollar
lost 19.7% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1943 at the same ratio, 1.24: $1,000 becomes
$1,245, and $10,000 becomes $12,446.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.24
$5.00
$6.22
$10.00
$12.45
$20.00
$24.89
$50.00
$62.23
$100
$124
$500
$622
$1,000
$1,245
$5,000
$6,223
$10,000
$12,446
$100,000
$124,460
$1,000,000
$1,244,604
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1943
Between 1939 and 1943, food rose the most, up 44.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 8.7%, against 24.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.62%
$124
Food
9.72%
$145
Apparel
6.51%
$129
Transportation
2.69%
$111
Medical care
2.12%
$109
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 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$124
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $106 by
1941, on its way to $124 in 1943; 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 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $124; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1943: $100 is worth $124 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1943/