$100 in 1939 is worth $140 in 1946,
because prices increased 40.3% over that period, an average of
4.95% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$140
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.3%
Average inflation rate
4.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$140
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.29
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1939 → 1946
$140
$100 in 1946 → 1939
$71.28
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1946
Between 1939 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.3%, which works out to an average of
4.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1946: the 1939 dollar
lost 28.7% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.40: $1,000 becomes
$1,403, and $10,000 becomes $14,029.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.40
$5.00
$7.01
$10.00
$14.03
$20.00
$28.06
$50.00
$70.14
$100
$140
$500
$701
$1,000
$1,403
$5,000
$7,014
$10,000
$14,029
$100,000
$140,288
$1,000,000
$1,402,878
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1946
Between 1939 and 1946, food rose the most, up 67.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 16.8%, against 40.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.95%
$140
Food
7.67%
$168
Apparel
6.87%
$159
Medical care
2.80%
$121
Transportation
2.24%
$117
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1946 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$140
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $117 by
1942, on its way to $140 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $140; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1946: $100 is worth $140 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1946/