$100 in 1943 is worth $881 in 1995,
because prices increased 780.9% over that period, an average of
4.27% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$881
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
780.9%
Average inflation rate
4.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$881
Price difference ($100 base)
$781
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1943 → 1995
$881
$100 in 1995 → 1943
$11.35
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1995
Between 1943 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 780.9%, which works out to an average of
4.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1995: the 1943 dollar
lost 88.6% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1995 at the same ratio, 8.81: $1,000 becomes
$8,809, and $10,000 becomes $88,092.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1995
$1.00
$8.81
$5.00
$44.05
$10.00
$88.09
$20.00
$176
$50.00
$440
$100
$881
$500
$4,405
$1,000
$8,809
$5,000
$44,046
$10,000
$88,092
$100,000
$880,925
$1,000,000
$8,809,249
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1995
Between 1943 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1868.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 374.8%, against 780.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.27%
$881
Medical care
5.90%
$1,969
Transportation
4.26%
$875
Food
4.24%
$868
Apparel
3.04%
$475
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 1995
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 1943–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$881
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $881 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $881; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1995: $100 is worth $881 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1995/