$100 in 1943 is worth $1,387 in 2016,
because prices increased 1287.3% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,387
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1287.3%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,387
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,287
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1943 → 2016
$1,387
$100 in 2016 → 1943
$7.21
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2016
Between 1943 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1287.3%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2016: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 2016 at the same ratio, 13.87: $1,000 becomes
$13,873, and $10,000 becomes $138,732.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2016
$1.00
$13.87
$5.00
$69.37
$10.00
$139
$20.00
$277
$50.00
$694
$100
$1,387
$500
$6,937
$1,000
$13,873
$5,000
$69,366
$10,000
$138,732
$100,000
$1,387,324
$1,000,000
$13,873,237
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2016
Between 1943 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 4040.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 353.4%, against 1287.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$1,387
Medical care
5.23%
$4,140
Food
3.73%
$1,450
Transportation
3.49%
$1,226
Apparel
2.09%
$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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,387
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,387 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,387; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,387 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2016/