$100 in 1943 is worth $1,761 in 2023,
because prices increased 1661.3% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1943 has
the same buying power as
$1,761
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1661.3%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,761
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,661
CPI in 1943
17.3
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1943 → 2023
$1,761
$100 in 2023 → 1943
$5.68
What happened to prices between 1943 and 2023
Between 1943 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1661.3%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1943 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2023: the 1943 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 2023 at the same ratio, 17.61: $1,000 becomes
$17,613, and $10,000 becomes $176,128.
Amount in 1943
Value in 2023
$1.00
$17.61
$5.00
$88.06
$10.00
$176
$20.00
$352
$50.00
$881
$100
$1,761
$500
$8,806
$1,000
$17,613
$5,000
$88,064
$10,000
$176,128
$100,000
$1,761,283
$1,000,000
$17,612,832
Inflation by spending category, 1943–2023
Between 1943 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 4802.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 369.7%, against 1661.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1943
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1943 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$1,761
Medical care
4.99%
$4,903
Food
3.74%
$1,889
Transportation
3.59%
$1,679
Apparel
1.95%
$470
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 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1943–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,496
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,761
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1943
$100 from 1943 had already become $576 by
1983, on its way to $1,761 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1943 had the buying
power of $1,761; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1943 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,761 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1943 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1943-to-2023/