$100 in 1939 is worth $1,066 in 1994,
because prices increased 966.2% over that period, an average of
4.40% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,066
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
966.2%
Average inflation rate
4.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,066
Price difference ($100 base)
$966
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1939 → 1994
$1,066
$100 in 1994 → 1939
$9.38
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1994
Between 1939 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 966.2%, which works out to an average of
4.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1994: the 1939 dollar
lost 90.6% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 1994 at the same ratio, 10.66: $1,000 becomes
$10,662, and $10,000 becomes $106,619.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1994
$1.00
$10.66
$5.00
$53.31
$10.00
$107
$20.00
$213
$50.00
$533
$100
$1,066
$500
$5,331
$1,000
$10,662
$5,000
$53,309
$10,000
$106,619
$100,000
$1,066,187
$1,000,000
$10,661,871
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1994
Between 1939 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1948.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 517.6%, against 966.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.40%
$1,066
Medical care
5.64%
$2,049
Food
4.66%
$1,223
Transportation
4.16%
$939
Apparel
3.37%
$618
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 1994
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 1939–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,066
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $240 by
1967, on its way to $1,066 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,066; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,066 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1994/