$100 in 1943 is worth $1,347 in 2013,
because prices increased 1246.6% over that period, an average of
3.78% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,347
in 2013
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1246.6%
Average inflation rate
3.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,347
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,247
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2013
232.957
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2013
1.46%
$100 in 1943 → 2013
$1,347
$100 in 2013 → 1943
$7.43
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2013
Between 1943 and 2013, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 232.957.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1246.6%, which works out to an average of
3.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2013: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2013 at the same ratio, 13.47: $1,000 becomes
$13,466, and $10,000 becomes $134,657.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2013
$1.00
$13.47
$5.00
$67.33
$10.00
$135
$20.00
$269
$50.00
$673
$100
$1,347
$500
$6,733
$1,000
$13,466
$5,000
$67,329
$10,000
$134,657
$100,000
$1,346,572
$1,000,000
$13,465,723
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2013
Between 1943 and 2013, medical care rose the most, up 3695.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 358.3%, against 1246.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2013, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.78%
$1,347
Medical care
5.33%
$3,796
Food
3.83%
$1,386
Transportation
3.81%
$1,367
Apparel
2.20%
$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 2013
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 1943–2013 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
2010–2013
2.23%
6.8%
$1,347
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,347 in 2013; 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: 2013
In 2013, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,347; the year's average CPI of 232.957 is the level
behind every 2013 figure on this page.
2013 was a low-inflation year with a lot of noise around the Federal Reserve.
Consumer prices rose 1.5%, below the Fed’s 2% target, and gasoline eased to an
average of $3.51 a gallon. Housing was the exception: the median new home sold
for about $268,900, up sharply from $245,200 in 2012, as the market recovered
from its post-crisis bottom.
The Fed dominated the news. Chairman Ben Bernanke’s May comments about slowing
bond purchases pushed long-term interest rates up by roughly a percentage
point that summer, and mortgages became more expensive within weeks. In
December the Fed finally announced a first small cut to its purchases while
promising to keep short-term rates near zero for a long time.
Washington added its own disruption. A 16-day government shutdown in October
delayed data releases and left a hole in that month’s CPI collection. Median
household income was reported at $53,585, the federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp cost 46 cents. The decade’s pattern was taking
shape: slow price growth, ultra-low interest rates, and a labor market that
improved gradually.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2013: $100 is worth $1,347 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2013/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2013. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2013/