$100 in 1943 is worth $995 in 2000,
because prices increased 895.4% over that period, an average of
4.11% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$995
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
895.4%
Average inflation rate
4.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$995
Price difference ($100 base)
$895
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1943 → 2000
$995
$100 in 2000 → 1943
$10.05
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2000
Between 1943 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 895.4%, which works out to an average of
4.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2000: the 1943 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2000 at the same ratio, 9.95: $1,000 becomes
$9,954, and $10,000 becomes $99,538.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2000
$1.00
$9.95
$5.00
$49.77
$10.00
$99.54
$20.00
$199
$50.00
$498
$100
$995
$500
$4,977
$1,000
$9,954
$5,000
$49,769
$10,000
$99,538
$100,000
$995,376
$1,000,000
$9,953,757
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2000
Between 1943 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 2228.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 366.2%, against 895.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.11%
$995
Medical care
5.68%
$2,329
Food
4.09%
$981
Transportation
4.06%
$964
Apparel
2.74%
$466
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 2000
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 1943–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$995
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $234 by
1971, on its way to $995 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $995; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2000: $100 is worth $995 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2000/