$100 in 1939 is worth $220 in 1963,
because prices increased 120.1% over that period, an average of
3.34% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
120.1%
Average inflation rate
3.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1939 → 1963
$220
$100 in 1963 → 1939
$45.42
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1963
Between 1939 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 120.1%, which works out to an average of
3.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1963: the 1939 dollar
lost 54.6% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1963 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,201, and $10,000 becomes $22,014.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$11.01
$10.00
$22.01
$20.00
$44.03
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,101
$1,000
$2,201
$5,000
$11,007
$10,000
$22,014
$100,000
$220,144
$1,000,000
$2,201,439
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1963
Between 1939 and 1963, food rose the most, up 163.6%, while transportation rose the least, up 116.1%, against 120.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.34%
$220
Food
4.12%
$264
Medical care
3.61%
$234
Apparel
3.28%
$217
Transportation
3.26%
$216
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 1963
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 1939–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $187 by
1951, on its way to $220 in 1963; 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 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1963: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1963/