$100 in 1939 is worth $127 in 1944,
because prices increased 26.6% over that period, an average of
4.83% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.6%
Average inflation rate
4.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.62
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1939 → 1944
$127
$100 in 1944 → 1939
$78.98
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1944
Between 1939 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.6%, which works out to an average of
4.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1944: the 1939 dollar
lost 21.0% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,266, and $10,000 becomes $12,662.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.33
$10.00
$12.66
$20.00
$25.32
$50.00
$63.31
$100
$127
$500
$633
$1,000
$1,266
$5,000
$6,331
$10,000
$12,662
$100,000
$126,619
$1,000,000
$1,266,187
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1944
Between 1939 and 1944, food rose the most, up 43.2%, while transportation rose the least, up 11.2%, against 26.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.83%
$127
Food
7.45%
$143
Apparel
6.65%
$138
Medical care
2.41%
$113
Transportation
2.14%
$111
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 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1944 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$127
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $106 by
1941, on its way to $127 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $127; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1944: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1944/