$100 in 1943 is worth $1,478 in 2019,
because prices increased 1377.8% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,478
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1377.8%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,478
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,378
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1943 → 2019
$1,478
$100 in 2019 → 1943
$6.77
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2019
Between 1943 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1377.8%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2019: the 1943 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2019 at the same ratio, 14.78: $1,000 becomes
$14,778, and $10,000 becomes $147,779.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2019
$1.00
$14.78
$5.00
$73.89
$10.00
$148
$20.00
$296
$50.00
$739
$100
$1,478
$500
$7,389
$1,000
$14,778
$5,000
$73,889
$10,000
$147,779
$100,000
$1,477,786
$1,000,000
$14,777,861
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2019
Between 1943 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 4350.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 346.2%, against 1377.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$1,478
Medical care
5.12%
$4,450
Food
3.64%
$1,511
Transportation
3.45%
$1,321
Apparel
1.99%
$446
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 2019
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,478
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $576 by
1983, on its way to $1,478 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,478; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,478 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2019/