What America was like in 1940
You were born in…
1940
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
86
years
That’s about 31,400 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1940 cost
3¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1940 would be worth
$24.05
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1940 was
30¢
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1940
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Since then you’ve lived under 15 presidents.
The 1940 census counted
132 million
Americans
By 2020 there were 331 million of us.
You’ve been around for
60
Super Bowls
Every single one of them. From Super Bowl I in 1967 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- Bell Labs invented the transistor1947. You were 7.
- Swanson sold its first TV dinner1953. You were 13.
- Disneyland opened in California1955. You were 15.
- Congress created the Interstate Highway System1956. You were 16.
- NASA was founded1958. You were 18.
- Barbie went on sale1959. You were 19.
…and 21 more on our list.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1940 story
That was 1940.
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Where these numbers come from
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, 1982-84=100
- U.S. Postal Service, Rates for Domestic Letters Since 1863
- U.S. Department of Labor, history of federal minimum wage rates
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census resident population
- Presidents and milestones: widely documented public records.