$100 in 1943 is worth $182 in 1965,
because prices increased 82.1% over that period, an average of
2.76% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$182
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
82.1%
Average inflation rate
2.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$182
Price difference ($100 base)
$82.08
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1943 → 1965
$182
$100 in 1965 → 1943
$54.92
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1965
Between 1943 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 82.1%, which works out to an average of
2.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1965: the 1943 dollar
lost 45.1% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1965 at the same ratio, 1.82: $1,000 becomes
$1,821, and $10,000 becomes $18,208.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.82
$5.00
$9.10
$10.00
$18.21
$20.00
$36.42
$50.00
$91.04
$100
$182
$500
$910
$1,000
$1,821
$5,000
$9,104
$10,000
$18,208
$100,000
$182,081
$1,000,000
$1,820,809
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1965
Between 1943 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 125.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 71.9%, against 82.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.76%
$182
Medical care
3.75%
$225
Transportation
3.22%
$201
Food
2.92%
$188
Apparel
2.49%
$172
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 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 4.85% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.25% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1943, at end
1943–1950
4.85%
39.3%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$182
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $182 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $182; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1965: $100 is worth $182 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1965/