$100 in 1943 is worth $187 in 1966,
because prices increased 87.3% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$187
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.3%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$187
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.28
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1943 → 1966
$187
$100 in 1966 → 1943
$53.40
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1966
Between 1943 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.3%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1966: the 1943 dollar
lost 46.6% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1966 at the same ratio, 1.87: $1,000 becomes
$1,873, and $10,000 becomes $18,728.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.87
$5.00
$9.36
$10.00
$18.73
$20.00
$37.46
$50.00
$93.64
$100
$187
$500
$936
$1,000
$1,873
$5,000
$9,364
$10,000
$18,728
$100,000
$187,283
$1,000,000
$1,872,832
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1966
Between 1943 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 134.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 76.3%, against 87.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$187
Medical care
3.78%
$235
Transportation
3.13%
$203
Food
3.01%
$198
Apparel
2.49%
$176
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 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 4.85% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1966 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
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$187
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $187 in 1966; 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 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $187; the year's average CPI of 32.4 is the level
behind every 1966 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.9% in 1966, nearly double 1965’s
1.6% as Vietnam War spending kept climbing without an offsetting tax
increase, pushing the economy closer to capacity and prices higher along
with it. Medicare coverage took effect that July 1, extending federal
health insurance to roughly 19 million Americans age 65 and older under
the program signed into law the year before. The Federal Reserve had
already moved to cool the overheating economy, raising its discount rate
the previous December over White House objections; the tightening carried
into 1966 as the first postwar credit crunch, freezing parts of the
housing and municipal bond markets even as inflation kept climbing. Congress widened
the wage floor’s reach that September 23, when the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1966 set a $1.40 minimum wage effective the following
February and extended coverage to roughly 9 million more workers in
retail, hospitals, schools, and other services not previously covered.
Consumer prices finished 1966 227.3% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
$1.25 an hour for the rest of the year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1966: $100 is worth $187 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1966/