$100 in 1940 is worth $1,190 in 1999,
because prices increased 1090.0% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$1,190
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1090.0%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,190
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,090
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1940 → 1999
$1,190
$100 in 1999 → 1940
$8.40
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1999
Between 1940 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1090.0%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1999: the 1940 dollar
lost 91.6% of its purchasing power over
these 59 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Every 1940 amount converts to 1999 at the same ratio, 11.90: $1,000 becomes
$11,900, and $10,000 becomes $119,000.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1999
$1.00
$11.90
$5.00
$59.50
$10.00
$119
$20.00
$238
$50.00
$595
$100
$1,190
$500
$5,950
$1,000
$11,900
$5,000
$59,500
$10,000
$119,000
$100,000
$1,190,000
$1,000,000
$11,900,000
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1999
Between 1940 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2309.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 502.3%, against 1090.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$1,190
Medical care
5.54%
$2,410
Food
4.53%
$1,368
Transportation
4.01%
$1,017
Apparel
3.09%
$602
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1940: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1940 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1940, at end
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$172
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$211
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$277
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$589
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$934
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,190
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $277 by
1970, on its way to $1,190 in 1999; 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $1,190; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1940 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,190 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1999/