$100 in 1939 is worth $1,450 in 2006,
because prices increased 1350.4% over that period, an average of
4.07% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,450
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1350.4%
Average inflation rate
4.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,450
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,350
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1939 → 2006
$1,450
$100 in 2006 → 1939
$6.89
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2006
Between 1939 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1350.4%, which works out to an average of
4.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2006: the 1939 dollar
lost 93.1% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2006 at the same ratio, 14.50: $1,000 becomes
$14,504, and $10,000 becomes $145,036.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2006
$1.00
$14.50
$5.00
$72.52
$10.00
$145
$20.00
$290
$50.00
$725
$100
$1,450
$500
$7,252
$1,000
$14,504
$5,000
$72,518
$10,000
$145,036
$100,000
$1,450,360
$1,000,000
$14,503,597
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2006
Between 1939 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 3164.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 453.2%, against 1350.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.07%
$1,450
Medical care
5.34%
$3,264
Food
4.28%
$1,654
Transportation
3.86%
$1,265
Apparel
2.59%
$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 2006
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 1939–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,450
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $355 by
1974, on its way to $1,450 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,450; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,450 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2006/