$100 in 1939 is worth $217 in 1962,
because prices increased 117.3% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$217
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
117.3%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$217
Price difference ($100 base)
$117
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1939 → 1962
$217
$100 in 1962 → 1939
$46.03
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1962
Between 1939 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 117.3%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1962: the 1939 dollar
lost 54.0% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1962 at the same ratio, 2.17: $1,000 becomes
$2,173, and $10,000 becomes $21,727.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1962
$1.00
$2.17
$5.00
$10.86
$10.00
$21.73
$20.00
$43.45
$50.00
$109
$100
$217
$500
$1,086
$1,000
$2,173
$5,000
$10,863
$10,000
$21,727
$100,000
$217,266
$1,000,000
$2,172,662
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1962
Between 1939 and 1962, food rose the most, up 159.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 114.4%, against 117.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$217
Food
4.23%
$259
Medical care
3.65%
$228
Transportation
3.39%
$215
Apparel
3.37%
$214
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 1962
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 1939–1962 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
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$217
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $173 by
1950, on its way to $217 in 1962; 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 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $217; the year's average CPI of 30.2 is the level
behind every 1962 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1962, matching 1961’s pace as
inflation stayed remarkably low and unemployment slowly declined from its
recession-era highs. That January, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers
introduced “wage-price guideposts,” non-binding targets meant to keep pay
and price increases in line with productivity growth without formal
controls. The space race delivered a milestone that February, when John
Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule circled Earth three times, making him the
first American to orbit the planet. Markets got a scare that spring: a
dispute over U.S. Steel’s April price increase, which Kennedy publicly
pressured the company into rolling back, rattled investors, and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell about 5.7% on May 28, its steepest one-day
drop since the 1929 crash. The year’s gravest moment came that October,
when American reconnaissance photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, setting off a 13-day standoff that brought the two superpowers
closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War before the
Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge
not to invade the island. Consumer prices finished 1962 205.1% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.15 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1962: $100 is worth $217 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1962/