$100 in 1943 is worth $1,129 in 2005,
because prices increased 1028.9% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,129
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1028.9%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,129
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,029
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1943 → 2005
$1,129
$100 in 2005 → 1943
$8.86
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2005
Between 1943 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1028.9%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2005: the 1943 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2005 at the same ratio, 11.29: $1,000 becomes
$11,289, and $10,000 becomes $112,890.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2005
$1.00
$11.29
$5.00
$56.45
$10.00
$113
$20.00
$226
$50.00
$564
$100
$1,129
$500
$5,645
$1,000
$11,289
$5,000
$56,445
$10,000
$112,890
$100,000
$1,128,902
$1,000,000
$11,289,017
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2005
Between 1943 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 2785.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 329.9%, against 1028.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$1,129
Medical care
5.57%
$2,886
Food
3.97%
$1,115
Transportation
3.93%
$1,094
Apparel
2.38%
$430
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 2005
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 1943–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $257 by
1973, on its way to $1,129 in 2005; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,129; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2005/