$100 in 1939 is worth $1,949 in 2021,
because prices increased 1849.4% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1939 has
the same buying power as
$1,949
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1849.4%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,949
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,849
CPI in 1939
13.9
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1939 → 2021
$1,949
$100 in 2021 → 1939
$5.13
What happened to prices between 1939 and 2021
Between 1939 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.9 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1849.4%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1939 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2021: the 1939 dollar
lost 94.9% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2021 at the same ratio, 19.49: $1,000 becomes
$19,494, and $10,000 becomes $194,942.
Amount in 1939
Value in 2021
$1.00
$19.49
$5.00
$97.47
$10.00
$195
$20.00
$390
$50.00
$975
$100
$1,949
$500
$9,747
$1,000
$19,494
$5,000
$97,471
$10,000
$194,942
$100,000
$1,949,424
$1,000,000
$19,494,245
Inflation by spending category, 1939–2021
Between 1939 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 4999.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 460.2%, against 1849.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1939
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1939 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$1,949
Medical care
4.91%
$5,100
Food
3.93%
$2,354
Transportation
3.45%
$1,613
Apparel
2.12%
$560
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 2021
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 1939–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,862
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,949
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1939
$100 from 1939 had already become $522 by
1979, on its way to $1,949 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1939 had the buying
power of $1,949; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1939 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,949 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1939 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1939-to-2021/