$100 in 1939 is worth $892 in 1989,
because prices increased 792.1% over that period, an average of
4.47% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$892
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
792.1%
Average inflation rate
4.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$892
Price difference ($100 base)
$792
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1939 → 1989
$892
$100 in 1989 → 1939
$11.21
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1989
Between 1939 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 792.1%, which works out to an average of
4.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1989: the 1939 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1989 at the same ratio, 8.92: $1,000 becomes
$8,921, and $10,000 becomes $89,209.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1989
$1.00
$8.92
$5.00
$44.60
$10.00
$89.21
$20.00
$178
$50.00
$446
$100
$892
$500
$4,460
$1,000
$8,921
$5,000
$44,604
$10,000
$89,209
$100,000
$892,086
$1,000,000
$8,920,863
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1989
Between 1939 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 1349.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 449.1%, against 792.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.47%
$892
Medical care
5.49%
$1,450
Food
4.84%
$1,060
Transportation
4.24%
$798
Apparel
3.46%
$549
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 1989
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 1939–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$892
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $220 by
1963, on its way to $892 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $892; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1989: $100 is worth $892 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1989/