$100 in 1939 is worth $227 in 1965,
because prices increased 126.6% over that period, an average of
3.20% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$227
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
126.6%
Average inflation rate
3.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$227
Price difference ($100 base)
$127
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1939 → 1965
$227
$100 in 1965 → 1939
$44.13
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1965
Between 1939 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 126.6%, which works out to an average of
3.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1965: the 1939 dollar
lost 55.9% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1965 at the same ratio, 2.27: $1,000 becomes
$2,266, and $10,000 becomes $22,662.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1965
$1.00
$2.27
$5.00
$11.33
$10.00
$22.66
$20.00
$45.32
$50.00
$113
$100
$227
$500
$1,133
$1,000
$2,266
$5,000
$11,331
$10,000
$22,662
$100,000
$226,619
$1,000,000
$2,266,187
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1965
Between 1939 and 1965, food rose the most, up 172.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.3%, against 126.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.20%
$227
Food
3.94%
$273
Medical care
3.50%
$245
Transportation
3.13%
$223
Apparel
3.10%
$221
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 1965
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 1939–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$227
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $191 by
1952, on its way to $227 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $227; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% 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 1965: $100 is worth $227 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1965/