$100 in 1939 is worth $1,359 in 2004,
because prices increased 1259.0% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,359
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1259.0%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,359
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,259
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1939 → 2004
$1,359
$100 in 2004 → 1939
$7.36
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2004
Between 1939 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1259.0%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2004: the 1939 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 2004 at the same ratio, 13.59: $1,000 becomes
$13,590, and $10,000 becomes $135,899.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2004
$1.00
$13.59
$5.00
$67.95
$10.00
$136
$20.00
$272
$50.00
$679
$100
$1,359
$500
$6,795
$1,000
$13,590
$5,000
$67,950
$10,000
$135,899
$100,000
$1,358,993
$1,000,000
$13,589,928
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2004
Between 1939 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 2910.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 457.4%, against 1259.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$1,359
Medical care
5.38%
$3,011
Food
4.34%
$1,578
Transportation
3.82%
$1,141
Apparel
2.68%
$557
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 2004
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 1939–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,359
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $264 by
1969, on its way to $1,359 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,359; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,359 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2004/