$100 in 1943 is worth $1,024 in 2001,
because prices increased 923.7% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,024
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
923.7%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,024
Price difference ($100 base)
$924
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1943 → 2001
$1,024
$100 in 2001 → 1943
$9.77
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2001
Between 1943 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 923.7%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2001: the 1943 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2001 at the same ratio, 10.24: $1,000 becomes
$10,237, and $10,000 becomes $102,370.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2001
$1.00
$10.24
$5.00
$51.18
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$205
$50.00
$512
$100
$1,024
$500
$5,118
$1,000
$10,237
$5,000
$51,185
$10,000
$102,370
$100,000
$1,023,699
$1,000,000
$10,236,994
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2001
Between 1943 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 2335.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 357.9%, against 923.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$1,024
Medical care
5.66%
$2,436
Food
4.07%
$1,012
Transportation
4.00%
$970
Apparel
2.66%
$458
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 2001
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 1943–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,024
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $234 by
1971, on its way to $1,024 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,024; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,024 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2001/