$100 in 1939 is worth $215 in 1961,
because prices increased 115.1% over that period, an average of
3.54% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
115.1%
Average inflation rate
3.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1939 → 1961
$215
$100 in 1961 → 1939
$46.49
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1961
Between 1939 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 115.1%, which works out to an average of
3.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1961: the 1939 dollar
lost 53.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1961 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,151, and $10,000 becomes $21,511.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1961
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.76
$10.00
$21.51
$20.00
$43.02
$50.00
$108
$100
$215
$500
$1,076
$1,000
$2,151
$5,000
$10,755
$10,000
$21,511
$100,000
$215,108
$1,000,000
$2,151,079
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1961
Between 1939 and 1961, food rose the most, up 157.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 110.5%, against 115.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.54%
$215
Food
4.40%
$258
Medical care
3.70%
$222
Apparel
3.51%
$213
Transportation
3.44%
$210
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 1961
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 1939–1961 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
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $173 by
1950, on its way to $215 in 1961; 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 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $215; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1961: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1961/