$100 in 1935 is worth $126 in 1943,
because prices increased 26.3% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$126
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.3%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$126
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.28
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1935 → 1943
$126
$100 in 1943 → 1935
$79.19
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1943
Between 1935 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.3%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1943: the 1935 dollar
lost 20.8% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
Every 1935 amount converts to 1943 at the same ratio, 1.26: $1,000 becomes
$1,263, and $10,000 becomes $12,628.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.26
$5.00
$6.31
$10.00
$12.63
$20.00
$25.26
$50.00
$63.14
$100
$126
$500
$631
$1,000
$1,263
$5,000
$6,314
$10,000
$12,628
$100,000
$126,277
$1,000,000
$1,262,774
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1943
Between 1935 and 1943, food rose the most, up 37.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 9.8%, against 26.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$126
Food
4.10%
$138
Apparel
3.69%
$134
Transportation
1.42%
$112
Medical care
1.18%
$110
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1935: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1935 to 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$126
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $101 by
1939, on its way to $126 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1935 had the buying
power of $126; 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 1935 to 1943: $100 is worth $126 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1943/