$100 in 1939 is worth $1,199 in 1999,
because prices increased 1098.6% over that period, an average of
4.23% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,199
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1098.6%
Average inflation rate
4.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,199
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,099
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1939 → 1999
$1,199
$100 in 1999 → 1939
$8.34
What happened to prices between 1939 and 1999
Between 1939 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1098.6%, which works out to an average of
4.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1999: the 1939 dollar
lost 91.7% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1999 at the same ratio, 11.99: $1,000 becomes
$11,986, and $10,000 becomes $119,856.
Amount in 1939
Value in 1999
$1.00
$11.99
$5.00
$59.93
$10.00
$120
$20.00
$240
$50.00
$599
$100
$1,199
$500
$5,993
$1,000
$11,986
$5,000
$59,928
$10,000
$119,856
$100,000
$1,198,561
$1,000,000
$11,985,612
Inflation by spending category, 1939–1999
Between 1939 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2333.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 507.9%, against 1098.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.23%
$1,199
Medical care
5.46%
$2,433
Food
4.48%
$1,391
Transportation
3.93%
$1,010
Apparel
3.05%
$608
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 1999
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 1939–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $264 by
1969, on its way to $1,199 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,199; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-1999/