$100 in 1939 is worth $301 in 1972,
because prices increased 200.7% over that period, an average of
3.39% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$301
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
200.7%
Average inflation rate
3.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$301
Price difference ($100 base)
$201
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1939 → 1972
$301
$100 in 1972 → 1939
$33.25
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1972
Between 1939 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 200.7%, which works out to an average of
3.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1972: the 1939 dollar
lost 66.7% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1972 at the same ratio, 3.01: $1,000 becomes
$3,007, and $10,000 becomes $30,072.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1972
$1.00
$3.01
$5.00
$15.04
$10.00
$30.07
$20.00
$60.14
$50.00
$150
$100
$301
$500
$1,504
$1,000
$3,007
$5,000
$15,036
$10,000
$30,072
$100,000
$300,719
$1,000,000
$3,007,194
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1972
Between 1939 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 262.1%, while transportation rose the least, up 179.0%, against 200.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.39%
$301
Medical care
3.98%
$362
Food
3.93%
$357
Apparel
3.26%
$288
Transportation
3.16%
$279
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 1972
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 1939–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$301
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $193 by
1955, on its way to $301 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $301; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1972: $100 is worth $301 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1972/