$100 in 1939 is worth $319 in 1973,
because prices increased 219.4% over that period, an average of
3.47% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$319
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
219.4%
Average inflation rate
3.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$319
Price difference ($100 base)
$219
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1939 → 1973
$319
$100 in 1973 → 1939
$31.31
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1973
Between 1939 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 219.4%, which works out to an average of
3.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1973: the 1939 dollar
lost 68.7% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1973 at the same ratio, 3.19: $1,000 becomes
$3,194, and $10,000 becomes $31,942.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1973
$1.00
$3.19
$5.00
$15.97
$10.00
$31.94
$20.00
$63.88
$50.00
$160
$100
$319
$500
$1,597
$1,000
$3,194
$5,000
$15,971
$10,000
$31,942
$100,000
$319,424
$1,000,000
$3,194,245
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1973
Between 1939 and 1973, food rose the most, up 308.5%, while transportation rose the least, up 188.1%, against 219.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.47%
$319
Food
4.23%
$408
Medical care
3.98%
$377
Apparel
3.27%
$299
Transportation
3.16%
$288
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 1973
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 1939–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$319
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $193 by
1955, on its way to $319 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $319; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1973: $100 is worth $319 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1973/