$100 in 1914 is worth $306 in 1963,
because prices increased 206.0% over that period, an average of
2.31% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$306
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
206.0%
Average inflation rate
2.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$306
Price difference ($100 base)
$206
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1914 → 1963
$306
$100 in 1963 → 1914
$32.68
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1963
Between 1914 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 206.0%, which works out to an average of
2.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1963: the 1914 dollar
lost 67.3% of its purchasing power over
these 49 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 3.06: $1,000 becomes
$3,060, and $10,000 becomes $30,600.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1963
$1.00
$3.06
$5.00
$15.30
$10.00
$30.60
$20.00
$61.20
$50.00
$153
$100
$306
$500
$1,530
$1,000
$3,060
$5,000
$15,300
$10,000
$30,600
$100,000
$306,000
$1,000,000
$3,060,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1963
Between 1914 and 1963, apparel rose the most, up 212.7%, while food rose the least, up 204.9%, against 206.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.31%
$306
Apparel
2.35%
$313
Food
2.30%
$305
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$306
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $141 by
1938, on its way to $306 in 1963; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1963
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $306; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1963: $100 is worth $306 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1963/