$100 in 1939 is worth $469 in 1978,
because prices increased 369.1% over that period, an average of
4.04% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$469
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
369.1%
Average inflation rate
4.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$469
Price difference ($100 base)
$369
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1939 → 1978
$469
$100 in 1978 → 1939
$21.32
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1978
Between 1939 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 369.1%, which works out to an average of
4.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1978: the 1939 dollar
lost 78.7% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1978 at the same ratio, 4.69: $1,000 becomes
$4,691, and $10,000 becomes $46,906.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1978
$1.00
$4.69
$5.00
$23.45
$10.00
$46.91
$20.00
$93.81
$50.00
$235
$100
$469
$500
$2,345
$1,000
$4,691
$5,000
$23,453
$10,000
$46,906
$100,000
$469,065
$1,000,000
$4,690,647
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1978
Between 1939 and 1978, food rose the most, up 510.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 276.9%, against 369.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.04%
$469
Food
4.75%
$610
Medical care
4.70%
$600
Transportation
3.82%
$431
Apparel
3.46%
$377
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$469
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $209 by
1959, on its way to $469 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $469; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1978: $100 is worth $469 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1978/