$100 in 1939 is worth $940 in 1990,
because prices increased 840.3% over that period, an average of
4.49% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$940
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
840.3%
Average inflation rate
4.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$940
Price difference ($100 base)
$840
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1939 → 1990
$940
$100 in 1990 → 1939
$10.64
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1990
Between 1939 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 840.3%, which works out to an average of
4.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1990: the 1939 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1990 at the same ratio, 9.40: $1,000 becomes
$9,403, and $10,000 becomes $94,029.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1990
$1.00
$9.40
$5.00
$47.01
$10.00
$94.03
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$470
$100
$940
$500
$4,701
$1,000
$9,403
$5,000
$47,014
$10,000
$94,029
$100,000
$940,288
$1,000,000
$9,402,878
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1990
Between 1939 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 1480.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 474.5%, against 840.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.49%
$940
Medical care
5.56%
$1,581
Food
4.85%
$1,122
Transportation
4.27%
$843
Apparel
3.49%
$575
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 1990
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 1939–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$940
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $227 by
1965, on its way to $940 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $940; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1990: $100 is worth $940 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1990/