$100 in 1939 is worth $1,405 in 2005,
because prices increased 1305.0% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,405
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1305.0%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,405
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,305
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1939 → 2005
$1,405
$100 in 2005 → 1939
$7.12
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2005
Between 1939 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1305.0%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2005: the 1939 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2005 at the same ratio, 14.05: $1,000 becomes
$14,050, and $10,000 becomes $140,504.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2005
$1.00
$14.05
$5.00
$70.25
$10.00
$141
$20.00
$281
$50.00
$703
$100
$1,405
$500
$7,025
$1,000
$14,050
$5,000
$70,252
$10,000
$140,504
$100,000
$1,405,036
$1,000,000
$14,050,360
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2005
Between 1939 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 3037.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 453.2%, against 1305.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$1,405
Medical care
5.36%
$3,138
Food
4.31%
$1,616
Transportation
3.86%
$1,216
Apparel
2.63%
$553
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 2005
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 1939–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,405
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $355 by
1974, on its way to $1,405 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,405; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,405 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2005/