$100 in 1943 is worth $907 in 1996,
because prices increased 806.9% over that period, an average of
4.25% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$907
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
806.9%
Average inflation rate
4.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$907
Price difference ($100 base)
$807
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1943 → 1996
$907
$100 in 1996 → 1943
$11.03
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1996
Between 1943 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 806.9%, which works out to an average of
4.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1996: the 1943 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1996 at the same ratio, 9.07: $1,000 becomes
$9,069, and $10,000 becomes $90,694.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1996
$1.00
$9.07
$5.00
$45.35
$10.00
$90.69
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$453
$100
$907
$500
$4,535
$1,000
$9,069
$5,000
$45,347
$10,000
$90,694
$100,000
$906,936
$1,000,000
$9,069,364
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1996
Between 1943 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 1937.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 373.7%, against 806.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.25%
$907
Medical care
5.85%
$2,038
Transportation
4.23%
$899
Food
4.23%
$896
Apparel
2.98%
$474
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 1996
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 1943–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$907
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $907 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $907; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1996: $100 is worth $907 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1996/