$100 in 1939 is worth $1,324 in 2003,
because prices increased 1223.7% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,324
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1223.7%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,324
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,224
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1939 → 2003
$1,324
$100 in 2003 → 1939
$7.55
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2003
Between 1939 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1223.7%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2003: the 1939 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2003 at the same ratio, 13.24: $1,000 becomes
$13,237, and $10,000 becomes $132,374.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2003
$1.00
$13.24
$5.00
$66.19
$10.00
$132
$20.00
$265
$50.00
$662
$100
$1,324
$500
$6,619
$1,000
$13,237
$5,000
$66,187
$10,000
$132,374
$100,000
$1,323,741
$1,000,000
$13,237,410
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2003
Between 1939 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2784.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 459.7%, against 1223.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$1,324
Medical care
5.39%
$2,884
Food
4.35%
$1,525
Transportation
3.82%
$1,102
Apparel
2.73%
$560
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 2003
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 1939–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,239
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,324
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $264 by
1969, on its way to $1,324 in 2003; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,324; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,324 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2003/