$100 in 1943 is worth $311 in 1975,
because prices increased 211.0% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$311
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
211.0%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$311
Price difference ($100 base)
$211
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1943 → 1975
$311
$100 in 1975 → 1943
$32.16
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1975
Between 1943 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 211.0%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1975: the 1943 dollar
lost 67.8% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.11: $1,000 becomes
$3,110, and $10,000 becomes $31,098.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.11
$5.00
$15.55
$10.00
$31.10
$20.00
$62.20
$50.00
$155
$100
$311
$500
$1,555
$1,000
$3,110
$5,000
$15,549
$10,000
$31,098
$100,000
$310,983
$1,000,000
$3,109,827
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1975
Between 1943 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 324.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 160.8%, against 211.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$311
Medical care
4.62%
$424
Food
3.99%
$350
Transportation
3.65%
$315
Apparel
3.04%
$261
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$311
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $168 by
1959, on its way to $311 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $311; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1975: $100 is worth $311 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1975/