$100 in 1939 is worth $747 in 1984,
because prices increased 647.5% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$747
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
647.5%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$747
Price difference ($100 base)
$647
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1939 → 1984
$747
$100 in 1984 → 1939
$13.38
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1984
Between 1939 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 647.5%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1984: the 1939 dollar
lost 86.6% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1984 at the same ratio, 7.47: $1,000 becomes
$7,475, and $10,000 becomes $74,748.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1984
$1.00
$7.47
$5.00
$37.37
$10.00
$74.75
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$374
$100
$747
$500
$3,737
$1,000
$7,475
$5,000
$37,374
$10,000
$74,748
$100,000
$747,482
$1,000,000
$7,474,820
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1984
Between 1939 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 936.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 372.7%, against 647.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$747
Medical care
5.33%
$1,037
Food
4.94%
$875
Transportation
4.50%
$725
Apparel
3.51%
$473
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 1984
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 1939–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$747
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $215 by
1961, on its way to $747 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $747; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1984: $100 is worth $747 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1984/