$100 in 1943 is worth $1,327 in 2012,
because prices increased 1227.1% over that period, an average of
3.82% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,327
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1227.1%
Average inflation rate
3.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,327
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,227
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1943 → 2012
$1,327
$100 in 2012 → 1943
$7.54
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2012
Between 1943 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1227.1%, which works out to an average of
3.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2012: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2012 at the same ratio, 13.27: $1,000 becomes
$13,271, and $10,000 becomes $132,713.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2012
$1.00
$13.27
$5.00
$66.36
$10.00
$133
$20.00
$265
$50.00
$664
$100
$1,327
$500
$6,636
$1,000
$13,271
$5,000
$66,357
$10,000
$132,713
$100,000
$1,327,133
$1,000,000
$13,271,329
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2012
Between 1943 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3604.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 354.2%, against 1227.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.82%
$1,327
Medical care
5.37%
$3,705
Food
3.86%
$1,367
Transportation
3.86%
$1,367
Apparel
2.22%
$454
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 2012
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 1943–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,327
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,327 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,327; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,327 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2012/