$100 in 1939 is worth $160 in 1947,
because prices increased 60.4% over that period, an average of
6.09% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$160
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
60.4%
Average inflation rate
6.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$160
Price difference ($100 base)
$60.43
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1939 → 1947
$160
$100 in 1947 → 1939
$62.33
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1947
Between 1939 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 60.4%, which works out to an average of
6.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1947: the 1939 dollar
lost 37.7% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.60: $1,000 becomes
$1,604, and $10,000 becomes $16,043.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.60
$5.00
$8.02
$10.00
$16.04
$20.00
$32.09
$50.00
$80.22
$100
$160
$500
$802
$1,000
$1,604
$5,000
$8,022
$10,000
$16,043
$100,000
$160,432
$1,000,000
$1,604,317
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1947
Between 1939 and 1947, food rose the most, up 104.2%, while transportation rose the least, up 29.4%, against 60.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.09%
$160
Food
9.34%
$204
Apparel
7.97%
$185
Medical care
3.44%
$131
Transportation
3.27%
$129
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1947 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$160
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $124 by
1943, on its way to $160 in 1947; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1940.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $160; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1947: $100 is worth $160 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1947/