$100 in 1943 is worth $350 in 1977,
because prices increased 250.3% over that period, an average of
3.76% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$350
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
250.3%
Average inflation rate
3.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$350
Price difference ($100 base)
$250
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1943 → 1977
$350
$100 in 1977 → 1943
$28.55
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1977
Between 1943 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 250.3%, which works out to an average of
3.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1977: the 1943 dollar
lost 71.5% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1977 at the same ratio, 3.50: $1,000 becomes
$3,503, and $10,000 becomes $35,029.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1977
$1.00
$3.50
$5.00
$17.51
$10.00
$35.03
$20.00
$70.06
$50.00
$175
$100
$350
$500
$1,751
$1,000
$3,503
$5,000
$17,514
$10,000
$35,029
$100,000
$350,289
$1,000,000
$3,502,890
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1977
Between 1943 and 1977, medical care rose the most, up 408.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.7%, against 250.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.76%
$350
Medical care
4.90%
$509
Food
4.03%
$383
Transportation
3.93%
$371
Apparel
3.10%
$283
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 1977
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.58% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$350
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $168 by
1959, on its way to $350 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $350; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1977: $100 is worth $350 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1977/