$100 in 1939 is worth $1,807 in 2018,
because prices increased 1706.5% over that period, an average of
3.73% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,807
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1706.5%
Average inflation rate
3.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,807
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,707
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1939 → 2018
$1,807
$100 in 2018 → 1939
$5.54
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2018
Between 1939 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1706.5%, which works out to an average of
3.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2018: the 1939 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2018 at the same ratio, 18.07: $1,000 becomes
$18,065, and $10,000 becomes $180,653.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2018
$1.00
$18.07
$5.00
$90.33
$10.00
$181
$20.00
$361
$50.00
$903
$100
$1,807
$500
$9,033
$1,000
$18,065
$5,000
$90,326
$10,000
$180,653
$100,000
$1,806,525
$1,000,000
$18,065,252
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2018
Between 1939 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 4605.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 481.7%, against 1706.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.73%
$1,807
Medical care
5.00%
$4,706
Food
3.96%
$2,149
Transportation
3.46%
$1,473
Apparel
2.25%
$582
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 2018
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 1939–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,807
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $522 by
1979, on its way to $1,807 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,807; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,807 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2018/