$100 in 1943 is worth $787 in 1991,
because prices increased 687.3% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$787
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
687.3%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$787
Price difference ($100 base)
$687
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1943 → 1991
$787
$100 in 1991 → 1943
$12.70
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1991
Between 1943 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 687.3%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1991: the 1943 dollar
lost 87.3% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1991 at the same ratio, 7.87: $1,000 becomes
$7,873, and $10,000 becomes $78,728.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1991
$1.00
$7.87
$5.00
$39.36
$10.00
$78.73
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$394
$100
$787
$500
$3,936
$1,000
$7,873
$5,000
$39,364
$10,000
$78,728
$100,000
$787,283
$1,000,000
$7,872,832
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1991
Between 1943 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1480.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 362.9%, against 687.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$787
Medical care
5.92%
$1,580
Food
4.42%
$797
Transportation
4.37%
$779
Apparel
3.24%
$463
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 1991
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 1943–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$787
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $193 by
1967, on its way to $787 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $787; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1991: $100 is worth $787 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1991/