$100 in 1943 is worth $212 in 1969,
because prices increased 112.1% over that period, an average of
2.93% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$212
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
112.1%
Average inflation rate
2.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$212
Price difference ($100 base)
$112
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1943 → 1969
$212
$100 in 1969 → 1943
$47.14
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1969
Between 1943 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 112.1%, which works out to an average of
2.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1969: the 1943 dollar
lost 52.9% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.12: $1,000 becomes
$2,121, and $10,000 becomes $21,214.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.12
$5.00
$10.61
$10.00
$21.21
$20.00
$42.43
$50.00
$106
$100
$212
$500
$1,061
$1,000
$2,121
$5,000
$10,607
$10,000
$21,214
$100,000
$212,139
$1,000,000
$2,121,387
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1969
Between 1943 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 184.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 104.3%, against 112.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.93%
$212
Medical care
4.11%
$285
Transportation
3.16%
$225
Food
3.02%
$217
Apparel
2.79%
$204
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 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 4.85% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$212
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $157 by
1956, on its way to $212 in 1969; 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 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $212; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1969: $100 is worth $212 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1969/