$100 in 1939 is worth $240 in 1967,
because prices increased 140.3% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$240
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
140.3%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$240
Price difference ($100 base)
$140
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1939 → 1967
$240
$100 in 1967 → 1939
$41.62
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1967
Between 1939 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 140.3%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1967: the 1939 dollar
lost 58.4% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.40: $1,000 becomes
$2,403, and $10,000 becomes $24,029.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.40
$5.00
$12.01
$10.00
$24.03
$20.00
$48.06
$50.00
$120
$100
$240
$500
$1,201
$1,000
$2,403
$5,000
$12,014
$10,000
$24,029
$100,000
$240,288
$1,000,000
$2,402,878
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1967
Between 1939 and 1967, food rose the most, up 189.0%, while transportation rose the least, up 132.9%, against 140.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$240
Food
3.86%
$289
Medical care
3.66%
$274
Apparel
3.12%
$236
Transportation
3.06%
$233
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 1967
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 1939–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$240
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $192 by
1953, on its way to $240 in 1967; 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 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $240; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1967: $100 is worth $240 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1967/