$100 in 1939 is worth $209 in 1959,
because prices increased 109.4% over that period, an average of
3.76% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$209
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
109.4%
Average inflation rate
3.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$209
Price difference ($100 base)
$109
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1939 → 1959
$209
$100 in 1959 → 1939
$47.77
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1959
Between 1939 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 109.4%, which works out to an average of
3.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1959: the 1939 dollar
lost 52.2% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1959 at the same ratio, 2.09: $1,000 becomes
$2,094, and $10,000 becomes $20,935.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1959
$1.00
$2.09
$5.00
$10.47
$10.00
$20.94
$20.00
$41.87
$50.00
$105
$100
$209
$500
$1,047
$1,000
$2,094
$5,000
$10,468
$10,000
$20,935
$100,000
$209,353
$1,000,000
$2,093,525
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1959
Between 1939 and 1959, food rose the most, up 151.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 108.3%, against 109.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.76%
$209
Food
4.72%
$252
Medical care
3.75%
$209
Transportation
3.74%
$208
Apparel
3.74%
$208
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 1959
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 1939–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$209
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $171 by
1949, on its way to $209 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $209; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1959: $100 is worth $209 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1959/