$100 in 1939 is worth $1,618 in 2011,
because prices increased 1518.3% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,618
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1518.3%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,618
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,518
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1939 → 2011
$1,618
$100 in 2011 → 1939
$6.18
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2011
Between 1939 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1518.3%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2011: the 1939 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2011 at the same ratio, 16.18: $1,000 becomes
$16,183, and $10,000 becomes $161,827.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2011
$1.00
$16.18
$5.00
$80.91
$10.00
$162
$20.00
$324
$50.00
$809
$100
$1,618
$500
$8,091
$1,000
$16,183
$5,000
$80,913
$10,000
$161,827
$100,000
$1,618,266
$1,000,000
$16,182,662
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2011
Between 1939 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 3786.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 465.3%, against 1518.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$1,618
Medical care
5.21%
$3,886
Food
4.20%
$1,931
Transportation
3.82%
$1,485
Apparel
2.44%
$565
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 2011
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 1939–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,569
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,618
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $355 by
1974, on its way to $1,618 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,618; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,618 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2011/