$100 in 1943 is worth $285 in 1974,
because prices increased 185.0% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$285
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
185.0%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$285
Price difference ($100 base)
$185
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1943 → 1974
$285
$100 in 1974 → 1943
$35.09
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1974
Between 1943 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 185.0%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1974: the 1943 dollar
lost 64.9% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1974 at the same ratio, 2.85: $1,000 becomes
$2,850, and $10,000 becomes $28,497.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1974
$1.00
$2.85
$5.00
$14.25
$10.00
$28.50
$20.00
$56.99
$50.00
$142
$100
$285
$500
$1,425
$1,000
$2,850
$5,000
$14,249
$10,000
$28,497
$100,000
$284,971
$1,000,000
$2,849,711
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1974
Between 1943 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 278.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 149.6%, against 185.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$285
Medical care
4.39%
$379
Food
3.85%
$322
Transportation
3.47%
$288
Apparel
3.00%
$250
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$285
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $168 by
1959, on its way to $285 in 1974; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $285; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1974: $100 is worth $285 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1974/