$100 in 1943 is worth $1,370 in 2015,
because prices increased 1270.0% over that period, an average of
3.70% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,370
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1270.0%
Average inflation rate
3.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,370
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,270
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1943 → 2015
$1,370
$100 in 2015 → 1943
$7.30
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2015
Between 1943 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1270.0%, which works out to an average of
3.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2015: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.7% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2015 at the same ratio, 13.70: $1,000 becomes
$13,700, and $10,000 becomes $137,004.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2015
$1.00
$13.70
$5.00
$68.50
$10.00
$137
$20.00
$274
$50.00
$685
$100
$1,370
$500
$6,850
$1,000
$13,700
$5,000
$68,502
$10,000
$137,004
$100,000
$1,370,040
$1,000,000
$13,700,405
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2015
Between 1943 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 3888.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 352.9%, against 1270.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.70%
$1,370
Medical care
5.25%
$3,989
Food
3.78%
$1,446
Transportation
3.57%
$1,252
Apparel
2.12%
$453
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 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,370
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,370 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,370; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,370 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2015/