$100 in 1939 is worth $202 in 1957,
because prices increased 102.2% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.2%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1939 → 1957
$202
$100 in 1957 → 1939
$49.47
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1957
Between 1939 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.2%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1957: the 1939 dollar
lost 50.5% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,022, and $10,000 becomes $20,216.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.11
$10.00
$20.22
$20.00
$40.43
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,011
$1,000
$2,022
$5,000
$10,108
$10,000
$20,216
$100,000
$202,158
$1,000,000
$2,021,583
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1957
Between 1939 and 1957, food rose the most, up 144.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 91.3%, against 102.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$202
Food
5.10%
$245
Apparel
4.10%
$206
Transportation
3.74%
$194
Medical care
3.67%
$191
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 1957
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $173 by
1948, on its way to $202 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1957: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1957/