$100 in 1943 is worth $476 in 1980,
because prices increased 376.3% over that period, an average of
4.31% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$476
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
376.3%
Average inflation rate
4.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$476
Price difference ($100 base)
$376
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1943 → 1980
$476
$100 in 1980 → 1943
$21.00
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1980
Between 1943 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 376.3%, which works out to an average of
4.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1980: the 1943 dollar
lost 79.0% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1980 at the same ratio, 4.76: $1,000 becomes
$4,763, and $10,000 becomes $47,630.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1980
$1.00
$4.76
$5.00
$23.82
$10.00
$47.63
$20.00
$95.26
$50.00
$238
$100
$476
$500
$2,382
$1,000
$4,763
$5,000
$23,815
$10,000
$47,630
$100,000
$476,301
$1,000,000
$4,763,006
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1980
Between 1943 and 1980, medical care rose the most, up 568.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 227.0%, against 376.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.31%
$476
Medical care
5.27%
$669
Transportation
4.57%
$523
Food
4.49%
$508
Apparel
3.25%
$327
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$476
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $173 by
1961, on its way to $476 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $476; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1980: $100 is worth $476 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1980/