$100 in 1943 is worth $755 in 1990,
because prices increased 655.5% over that period, an average of
4.40% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$755
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
655.5%
Average inflation rate
4.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$755
Price difference ($100 base)
$655
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1943 → 1990
$755
$100 in 1990 → 1943
$13.24
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1990
Between 1943 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 655.5%, which works out to an average of
4.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1990: the 1943 dollar
lost 86.8% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1990 at the same ratio, 7.55: $1,000 becomes
$7,555, and $10,000 becomes $75,549.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1990
$1.00
$7.55
$5.00
$37.77
$10.00
$75.55
$20.00
$151
$50.00
$378
$100
$755
$500
$3,777
$1,000
$7,555
$5,000
$37,775
$10,000
$75,549
$100,000
$755,491
$1,000,000
$7,554,913
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1990
Between 1943 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 1353.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 346.4%, against 655.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.40%
$755
Medical care
5.86%
$1,454
Food
4.45%
$774
Transportation
4.40%
$758
Apparel
3.23%
$446
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 1990
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 1943–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$755
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $193 by
1967, on its way to $755 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $755; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1990: $100 is worth $755 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1990/