$100 in 1917 is worth $135 in 1943,
because prices increased 35.2% over that period, an average of
1.17% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.2%
Average inflation rate
1.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.16
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1917 → 1943
$135
$100 in 1943 → 1917
$73.99
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1943
Between 1917 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.2%, which works out to an average of
1.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1943: the 1917 dollar
lost 26.0% of its purchasing power over
these 26 years.
1917 is when World War I inflation stopped being a background trend and
became the dominant fact of American economic life. Consumer prices rose
17.4% for the year, more than double the previous year’s already sharp
increase, as the country’s April 6 entry into the war layered federal war
spending on top of an economy already strained by military demand and
worker shortages. Congress paid for the war with the War Revenue Act that
October, which sharply raised income taxes, created a new tax on wartime
business profits, and, in a small but very visible change for ordinary
households, raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 2 cents to 3 cents
that November, the rate’s first move since 1885. Herbert Hoover took over
the new Food Administration in August and asked Americans to conserve food
voluntarily rather than face formal rationing, a campaign that became
famous enough that “Hooverize” entered the language as a verb for cutting
back. None of it slowed prices much: the 17.4% increase would be topped
again the very next year, in 1918.
Every 1917 amount converts to 1943 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,352, and $10,000 becomes $13,516.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.76
$10.00
$13.52
$20.00
$27.03
$50.00
$67.58
$100
$135
$500
$676
$1,000
$1,352
$5,000
$6,758
$10,000
$13,516
$100,000
$135,156
$1,000,000
$1,351,563
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1943
Between 1917 and 1943, apparel rose the most, up 37.6%, while food rose the least, up 17.9%, against 35.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.17%
$135
Apparel
1.24%
$138
Food
0.64%
$118
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1917: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1917 to 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$130
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$109
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $130 by
1930, on its way to $135 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1943: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1943/