$100 in 1943 is worth $942 in 1998,
because prices increased 842.2% over that period, an average of
4.16% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$942
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
842.2%
Average inflation rate
4.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$942
Price difference ($100 base)
$842
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1943 → 1998
$942
$100 in 1998 → 1943
$10.61
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1998
Between 1943 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 842.2%, which works out to an average of
4.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1998: the 1943 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 1998 at the same ratio, 9.42: $1,000 becomes
$9,422, and $10,000 becomes $94,220.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1998
$1.00
$9.42
$5.00
$47.11
$10.00
$94.22
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$471
$100
$942
$500
$4,711
$1,000
$9,422
$5,000
$47,110
$10,000
$94,220
$100,000
$942,197
$1,000,000
$9,421,965
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1998
Between 1943 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 2061.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 378.4%, against 842.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.16%
$942
Medical care
5.75%
$2,162
Food
4.16%
$940
Transportation
4.06%
$891
Apparel
2.89%
$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 1998
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 1943–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$942
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $234 by
1971, on its way to $942 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $942; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1998: $100 is worth $942 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1998/