$100 in 1943 is worth $167 in 1958,
because prices increased 67.1% over that period, an average of
3.48% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
67.1%
Average inflation rate
3.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$67.05
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1943 → 1958
$167
$100 in 1958 → 1943
$59.86
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1958
Between 1943 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 67.1%, which works out to an average of
3.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1958: the 1943 dollar
lost 40.1% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,671, and $10,000 becomes $16,705.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.35
$10.00
$16.71
$20.00
$33.41
$50.00
$83.53
$100
$167
$500
$835
$1,000
$1,671
$5,000
$8,353
$10,000
$16,705
$100,000
$167,052
$1,000,000
$1,670,520
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1958
Between 1943 and 1958, medical care rose the most, up 83.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.4%, against 67.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.48%
$167
Medical care
4.15%
$184
Transportation
3.99%
$180
Food
3.86%
$177
Apparel
3.20%
$160
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–).
Decade by decade: 1943 to 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 4.85% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.30% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1943, at end
1943–1950
4.85%
39.3%
$139
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $139 by
1950, on its way to $167 in 1958; 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.
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1958: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1958/