$100 in 1939 is worth $173 in 1948,
because prices increased 73.4% over that period, an average of
6.31% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.4%
Average inflation rate
6.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.38
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1939 → 1948
$173
$100 in 1948 → 1939
$57.68
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1948
Between 1939 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 73.4%, which works out to an average of
6.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1948: the 1939 dollar
lost 42.3% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,734, and $10,000 becomes $17,338.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.67
$10.00
$17.34
$20.00
$34.68
$50.00
$86.69
$100
$173
$500
$867
$1,000
$1,734
$5,000
$8,669
$10,000
$17,338
$100,000
$173,381
$1,000,000
$1,733,813
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1948
Between 1939 and 1948, food rose the most, up 121.2%, while medical care rose the least, up 39.8%, against 73.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.31%
$173
Food
9.22%
$221
Apparel
7.81%
$197
Transportation
4.14%
$144
Medical care
3.79%
$140
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1948 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $124 by
1943, on its way to $173 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $173; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1948: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1948/