$100 in 1943 is worth $139 in 1948,
because prices increased 39.3% over that period, an average of
6.85% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.3%
Average inflation rate
6.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.31
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1943 → 1948
$139
$100 in 1948 → 1943
$71.78
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1948
Between 1943 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.3%, which works out to an average of
6.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1948: the 1943 dollar
lost 28.2% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
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.
Every 1943 amount converts to 1948 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,393, and $10,000 becomes $13,931.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.97
$10.00
$13.93
$20.00
$27.86
$50.00
$69.65
$100
$139
$500
$697
$1,000
$1,393
$5,000
$6,965
$10,000
$13,931
$100,000
$139,306
$1,000,000
$1,393,064
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1948
Between 1943 and 1948, apparel rose the most, up 52.9%, while medical care rose the least, up 28.6%, against 39.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.85%
$139
Apparel
8.86%
$153
Food
8.83%
$153
Transportation
5.32%
$130
Medical care
5.15%
$129
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1943: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $104 by
1945, on its way to $139 in 1948; 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 the smallest rise was 1.7% in 1944.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1948: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1948/