$100 in 1943 is worth $1,245 in 2008,
because prices increased 1144.5% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,245
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1144.5%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,245
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,145
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1943 → 2008
$1,245
$100 in 2008 → 1943
$8.04
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2008
Between 1943 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1144.5%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2008: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.0% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 2008 at the same ratio, 12.45: $1,000 becomes
$12,445, and $10,000 becomes $124,453.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2008
$1.00
$12.45
$5.00
$62.23
$10.00
$124
$20.00
$249
$50.00
$622
$100
$1,245
$500
$6,223
$1,000
$12,445
$5,000
$62,226
$10,000
$124,453
$100,000
$1,244,526
$1,000,000
$12,445,260
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2008
Between 1943 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 3150.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 327.7%, against 1144.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$1,245
Medical care
5.50%
$3,251
Food
3.96%
$1,252
Transportation
3.94%
$1,230
Apparel
2.26%
$428
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 2008
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 1943–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$1,245
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $257 by
1973, on its way to $1,245 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,245; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2008: $100 is worth $1,245 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2008/