$100 in 1939 is worth $213 in 1960,
because prices increased 112.9% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$213
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.9%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$213
Price difference ($100 base)
$113
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1939 → 1960
$213
$100 in 1960 → 1939
$46.96
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1960
Between 1939 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.9%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1960: the 1939 dollar
lost 53.0% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1960 at the same ratio, 2.13: $1,000 becomes
$2,129, and $10,000 becomes $21,295.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1960
$1.00
$2.13
$5.00
$10.65
$10.00
$21.29
$20.00
$42.59
$50.00
$106
$100
$213
$500
$1,065
$1,000
$2,129
$5,000
$10,647
$10,000
$21,295
$100,000
$212,950
$1,000,000
$2,129,496
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1960
Between 1939 and 1960, food rose the most, up 154.2%, while transportation rose the least, up 108.4%, against 112.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$213
Food
4.54%
$254
Medical care
3.75%
$217
Apparel
3.63%
$212
Transportation
3.56%
$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 1960
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 1939–1960 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$213
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $171 by
1949, on its way to $213 in 1960; 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 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $213; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1960: $100 is worth $213 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1960/