$100 in 1939 is worth $717 in 1983,
because prices increased 616.5% over that period, an average of
4.58% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$717
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
616.5%
Average inflation rate
4.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$717
Price difference ($100 base)
$617
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1939 → 1983
$717
$100 in 1983 → 1939
$13.96
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1983
Between 1939 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 616.5%, which works out to an average of
4.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1983: the 1939 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1983 at the same ratio, 7.17: $1,000 becomes
$7,165, and $10,000 becomes $71,655.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1983
$1.00
$7.17
$5.00
$35.83
$10.00
$71.65
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$358
$100
$717
$500
$3,583
$1,000
$7,165
$5,000
$35,827
$10,000
$71,655
$100,000
$716,547
$1,000,000
$7,165,468
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1983
Between 1939 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 876.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 363.9%, against 616.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.58%
$717
Medical care
5.32%
$977
Food
4.96%
$842
Transportation
4.50%
$694
Apparel
3.55%
$464
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1939–1983 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$593
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$717
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $215 by
1961, on its way to $717 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $717; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1983: $100 is worth $717 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1983/