$100 in 1939 is worth $223 in 1964,
because prices increased 123.0% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$223
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
123.0%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$223
Price difference ($100 base)
$123
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1939 → 1964
$223
$100 in 1964 → 1939
$44.84
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1964
Between 1939 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 123.0%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1964: the 1939 dollar
lost 55.2% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1964 at the same ratio, 2.23: $1,000 becomes
$2,230, and $10,000 becomes $22,302.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1964
$1.00
$2.23
$5.00
$11.15
$10.00
$22.30
$20.00
$44.60
$50.00
$112
$100
$223
$500
$1,115
$1,000
$2,230
$5,000
$11,151
$10,000
$22,302
$100,000
$223,022
$1,000,000
$2,230,216
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1964
Between 1939 and 1964, food rose the most, up 166.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 119.0%, against 123.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$223
Food
4.01%
$267
Medical care
3.54%
$239
Transportation
3.20%
$220
Apparel
3.18%
$219
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 1964
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 1939–1964 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
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$223
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $187 by
1951, on its way to $223 in 1964; 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 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $223; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1964: $100 is worth $223 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1964/