$100 in 1939 is worth $291 in 1971,
because prices increased 191.4% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$291
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
191.4%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$291
Price difference ($100 base)
$191
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1939 → 1971
$291
$100 in 1971 → 1939
$34.32
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1971
Between 1939 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 191.4%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1971: the 1939 dollar
lost 65.7% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.91: $1,000 becomes
$2,914, and $10,000 becomes $29,137.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.91
$5.00
$14.57
$10.00
$29.14
$20.00
$58.27
$50.00
$146
$100
$291
$500
$1,457
$1,000
$2,914
$5,000
$14,568
$10,000
$29,137
$100,000
$291,367
$1,000,000
$2,913,669
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1971
Between 1939 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 250.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 176.2%, against 191.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$291
Medical care
4.00%
$350
Food
3.92%
$342
Apparel
3.30%
$283
Transportation
3.23%
$276
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 1971
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 1939–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$279
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$291
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $193 by
1955, on its way to $291 in 1971; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $291; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1971: $100 is worth $291 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1971/