$100 in 1943 is worth $1,260 in 2010,
because prices increased 1160.4% over that period, an average of
3.85% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,260
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1160.4%
Average inflation rate
3.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,260
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,160
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1943 → 2010
$1,260
$100 in 2010 → 1943
$7.93
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2010
Between 1943 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1160.4%, which works out to an average of
3.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2010: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.1% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2010 at the same ratio, 12.60: $1,000 becomes
$12,604, and $10,000 becomes $126,044.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2010
$1.00
$12.60
$5.00
$63.02
$10.00
$126
$20.00
$252
$50.00
$630
$100
$1,260
$500
$6,302
$1,000
$12,604
$5,000
$63,022
$10,000
$126,044
$100,000
$1,260,439
$1,000,000
$12,604,393
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2010
Between 1943 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 3368.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 329.9%, against 1160.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.85%
$1,260
Medical care
5.44%
$3,468
Food
3.88%
$1,284
Transportation
3.80%
$1,216
Apparel
2.20%
$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 2010
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 1943–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,260
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,260 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,260; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,260 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2010/