$100 in 1943 is worth $257 in 1973,
because prices increased 156.6% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$257
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
156.6%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$257
Price difference ($100 base)
$157
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1943 → 1973
$257
$100 in 1973 → 1943
$38.96
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1973
Between 1943 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 156.6%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1973: the 1943 dollar
lost 61.0% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.57: $1,000 becomes
$2,566, and $10,000 becomes $25,665.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.57
$5.00
$12.83
$10.00
$25.66
$20.00
$51.33
$50.00
$128
$100
$257
$500
$1,283
$1,000
$2,566
$5,000
$12,832
$10,000
$25,665
$100,000
$256,647
$1,000,000
$2,566,474
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1973
Between 1943 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 246.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 132.4%, against 156.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$257
Medical care
4.23%
$346
Food
3.51%
$282
Transportation
3.22%
$259
Apparel
2.85%
$232
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 1973
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 1943–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$257
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $167 by
1958, on its way to $257 in 1973; 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 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $257; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1973: $100 is worth $257 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1973/