$100 in 1943 is worth $928 in 1997,
because prices increased 827.7% over that period, an average of
4.21% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$928
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
827.7%
Average inflation rate
4.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$928
Price difference ($100 base)
$828
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1943 → 1997
$928
$100 in 1997 → 1943
$10.78
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1997
Between 1943 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 827.7%, which works out to an average of
4.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1997: the 1943 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1997 at the same ratio, 9.28: $1,000 becomes
$9,277, and $10,000 becomes $92,775.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1997
$1.00
$9.28
$5.00
$46.39
$10.00
$92.77
$20.00
$186
$50.00
$464
$100
$928
$500
$4,639
$1,000
$9,277
$5,000
$46,387
$10,000
$92,775
$100,000
$927,746
$1,000,000
$9,277,457
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1997
Between 1943 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1994.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 378.1%, against 827.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.21%
$928
Medical care
5.79%
$2,095
Food
4.20%
$920
Transportation
4.17%
$908
Apparel
2.94%
$478
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 1997
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 1943–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$928
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $928 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $928; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1997: $100 is worth $928 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1997/