$100 in 1943 is worth $657 in 1987,
because prices increased 556.6% over that period, an average of
4.37% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$657
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
556.6%
Average inflation rate
4.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$657
Price difference ($100 base)
$557
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1943 → 1987
$657
$100 in 1987 → 1943
$15.23
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1987
Between 1943 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 556.6%, which works out to an average of
4.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1987: the 1943 dollar
lost 84.8% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1987 at the same ratio, 6.57: $1,000 becomes
$6,566, and $10,000 becomes $65,665.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1987
$1.00
$6.57
$5.00
$32.83
$10.00
$65.66
$20.00
$131
$50.00
$328
$100
$657
$500
$3,283
$1,000
$6,566
$5,000
$32,832
$10,000
$65,665
$100,000
$656,647
$1,000,000
$6,566,474
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1987
Between 1943 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 1061.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 297.8%, against 556.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.37%
$657
Medical care
5.73%
$1,162
Food
4.40%
$664
Transportation
4.39%
$663
Apparel
3.19%
$398
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 1987
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 1943–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$657
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $182 by
1965, on its way to $657 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $657; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1987: $100 is worth $657 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1987/