$100 in 1943 is worth $1,368 in 2014,
because prices increased 1268.4% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,368
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1268.4%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,368
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,268
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1943 → 2014
$1,368
$100 in 2014 → 1943
$7.31
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2014
Between 1943 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1268.4%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2014: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.7% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2014 at the same ratio, 13.68: $1,000 becomes
$13,684, and $10,000 becomes $136,842.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2014
$1.00
$13.68
$5.00
$68.42
$10.00
$137
$20.00
$274
$50.00
$684
$100
$1,368
$500
$6,842
$1,000
$13,684
$5,000
$68,421
$10,000
$136,842
$100,000
$1,368,416
$1,000,000
$13,684,162
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2014
Between 1943 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 3786.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 358.7%, against 1268.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$1,368
Medical care
5.29%
$3,887
Food
3.81%
$1,419
Transportation
3.74%
$1,358
Apparel
2.17%
$459
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 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,368
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,368 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,368; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,368 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2014/