$100 in 1943 is worth $525 in 1981,
because prices increased 425.4% over that period, an average of
4.46% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$525
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
425.4%
Average inflation rate
4.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$525
Price difference ($100 base)
$425
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1943 → 1981
$525
$100 in 1981 → 1943
$19.03
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1981
Between 1943 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 425.4%, which works out to an average of
4.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1981: the 1943 dollar
lost 81.0% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.25: $1,000 becomes
$5,254, and $10,000 becomes $52,543.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.25
$5.00
$26.27
$10.00
$52.54
$20.00
$105
$50.00
$263
$100
$525
$500
$2,627
$1,000
$5,254
$5,000
$26,272
$10,000
$52,543
$100,000
$525,434
$1,000,000
$5,254,335
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1981
Between 1943 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 640.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 242.8%, against 425.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.46%
$525
Medical care
5.41%
$740
Transportation
4.76%
$586
Food
4.58%
$547
Apparel
3.30%
$343
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$525
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $173 by
1961, on its way to $525 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $525; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1981: $100 is worth $525 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1981/