$100 in 1943 is worth $234 in 1971,
because prices increased 134.1% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$234
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
134.1%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$234
Price difference ($100 base)
$134
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1943 → 1971
$234
$100 in 1971 → 1943
$42.72
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1971
Between 1943 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 134.1%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1971: the 1943 dollar
lost 57.3% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.34: $1,000 becomes
$2,341, and $10,000 becomes $23,410.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.34
$5.00
$11.71
$10.00
$23.41
$20.00
$46.82
$50.00
$117
$100
$234
$500
$1,171
$1,000
$2,341
$5,000
$11,705
$10,000
$23,410
$100,000
$234,104
$1,000,000
$2,341,040
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1971
Between 1943 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 222.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 119.8%, against 134.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$234
Medical care
4.27%
$322
Transportation
3.30%
$248
Food
3.12%
$236
Apparel
2.85%
$220
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 1971
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 1943–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$224
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$234
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $162 by
1957, on its way to $234 in 1971; 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 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $234; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1971: $100 is worth $234 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1971/