$100 in 1939 is worth $264 in 1969,
because prices increased 164.0% over that period, an average of
3.29% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$264
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
164.0%
Average inflation rate
3.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$264
Price difference ($100 base)
$164
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1939 → 1969
$264
$100 in 1969 → 1939
$37.87
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1969
Between 1939 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 164.0%, which works out to an average of
3.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1969: the 1939 dollar
lost 62.1% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.64: $1,000 becomes
$2,640, and $10,000 becomes $26,403.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.64
$5.00
$13.20
$10.00
$26.40
$20.00
$52.81
$50.00
$132
$100
$264
$500
$1,320
$1,000
$2,640
$5,000
$13,201
$10,000
$26,403
$100,000
$264,029
$1,000,000
$2,640,288
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1969
Between 1939 and 1969, food rose the most, up 214.4%, while transportation rose the least, up 149.7%, against 164.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.29%
$264
Food
3.89%
$314
Medical care
3.84%
$310
Apparel
3.28%
$263
Transportation
3.10%
$250
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 1969
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 1939–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$264
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $194 by
1954, on its way to $264 in 1969; 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 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $264; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1969: $100 is worth $264 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1969/