$100 in 1939 is worth $1,543 in 2009,
because prices increased 1443.4% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,543
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1443.4%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,543
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,443
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1939 → 2009
$1,543
$100 in 2009 → 1939
$6.48
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2009
Between 1939 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1443.4%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2009: the 1939 dollar
lost 93.5% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2009 at the same ratio, 15.43: $1,000 becomes
$15,434, and $10,000 becomes $154,343.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2009
$1.00
$15.43
$5.00
$77.17
$10.00
$154
$20.00
$309
$50.00
$772
$100
$1,543
$500
$7,717
$1,000
$15,434
$5,000
$77,172
$10,000
$154,343
$100,000
$1,543,432
$1,000,000
$15,434,317
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2009
Between 1939 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 3546.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 455.9%, against 1443.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$1,543
Medical care
5.27%
$3,647
Food
4.25%
$1,847
Transportation
3.68%
$1,254
Apparel
2.48%
$556
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 2009
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 1939–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,543
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $355 by
1974, on its way to $1,543 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,543; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,543 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2009/