$100 in 1943 is worth $963 in 1999,
because prices increased 863.0% over that period, an average of
4.13% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$963
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
863.0%
Average inflation rate
4.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$963
Price difference ($100 base)
$863
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1943 → 1999
$963
$100 in 1999 → 1943
$10.38
What happened to prices between 1943 and 1999
Between 1943 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 863.0%, which works out to an average of
4.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1999: the 1943 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.63: $1,000 becomes
$9,630, and $10,000 becomes $96,301.
Amount in 1943
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.63
$5.00
$48.15
$10.00
$96.30
$20.00
$193
$50.00
$482
$100
$963
$500
$4,815
$1,000
$9,630
$5,000
$48,150
$10,000
$96,301
$100,000
$963,006
$1,000,000
$9,630,058
Inflation by spending category, 1943–1999
Between 1943 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 2137.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 372.3%, against 863.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.13%
$963
Medical care
5.71%
$2,238
Food
4.12%
$960
Transportation
4.02%
$908
Apparel
2.81%
$472
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 1999
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 1943–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$963
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $234 by
1971, on its way to $963 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $963; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 1999: $100 is worth $963 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-1999/