$100 in 1943 is worth $1,417 in 2017,
because prices increased 1316.9% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,417
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1316.9%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,417
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,317
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1943 → 2017
$1,417
$100 in 2017 → 1943
$7.06
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2017
Between 1943 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1316.9%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1943 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2017 at the same ratio, 14.17: $1,000 becomes
$14,169, and $10,000 becomes $141,688.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2017
$1.00
$14.17
$5.00
$70.84
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$283
$50.00
$708
$100
$1,417
$500
$7,084
$1,000
$14,169
$5,000
$70,844
$10,000
$141,688
$100,000
$1,416,879
$1,000,000
$14,168,786
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2017
Between 1943 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 4143.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 351.8%, against 1316.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$1,417
Medical care
5.20%
$4,244
Food
3.69%
$1,462
Transportation
3.49%
$1,268
Apparel
2.06%
$452
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 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,417
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $377 by
1978, on its way to $1,417 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,417; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,417 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2017/