$100 in 1939 is worth $187 in 1951,
because prices increased 87.1% over that period, an average of
5.36% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$187
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.1%
Average inflation rate
5.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$187
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.05
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1939 → 1951
$187
$100 in 1951 → 1939
$53.46
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1951
Between 1939 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.1%, which works out to an average of
5.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1951: the 1939 dollar
lost 46.5% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.87: $1,000 becomes
$1,871, and $10,000 becomes $18,705.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.87
$5.00
$9.35
$10.00
$18.71
$20.00
$37.41
$50.00
$93.53
$100
$187
$500
$935
$1,000
$1,871
$5,000
$9,353
$10,000
$18,705
$100,000
$187,050
$1,000,000
$1,870,504
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1951
Between 1939 and 1951, food rose the most, up 139.0%, while medical care rose the least, up 54.4%, against 87.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.36%
$187
Food
7.53%
$239
Apparel
6.09%
$203
Transportation
4.45%
$169
Medical care
3.68%
$154
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1939, at end
1939–1940
0.72%
0.7%
$101
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$173
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$187
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $129 by
1945, on its way to $187 in 1951; 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 prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $187; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1951: $100 is worth $187 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1951/