$100 in 1916 is worth $281 in 1963,
because prices increased 180.7% over that period, an average of
2.22% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$281
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
180.7%
Average inflation rate
2.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$281
Price difference ($100 base)
$181
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1916 → 1963
$281
$100 in 1963 → 1916
$35.62
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1963
Between 1916 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 180.7%, which works out to an average of
2.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1963: the 1916 dollar
lost 64.4% of its purchasing power over
these 47 years.
1916 was when World War I first showed up clearly in American price tags.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% for the year, easily the sharpest increase since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI history begins in 1913, as factories ran
flat out to fill steel, munitions, and food orders from Britain and France.
Railroad workers felt the squeeze from rising living costs enough to threaten
a nationwide strike; Congress headed it off in September with the Adamson
Act, which set an eight-hour standard workday for interstate rail employees,
the first federal law of its kind covering private-sector hours. Washington
was also preparing more directly for war: the National Defense Act, signed
in June, expanded the Army and National Guard and funded new
government-owned munitions plants, adding another source of demand to an
economy already running hot. Woodrow Wilson won re-election in November
largely on having kept the country out of the fighting so far, a promise
that would not survive the following spring. A first-class stamp still cost
2 cents, one of the few prices that had not yet moved.
Every 1916 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 2.81: $1,000 becomes
$2,807, and $10,000 becomes $28,073.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.81
$5.00
$14.04
$10.00
$28.07
$20.00
$56.15
$50.00
$140
$100
$281
$500
$1,404
$1,000
$2,807
$5,000
$14,037
$10,000
$28,073
$100,000
$280,734
$1,000,000
$2,807,339
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1963
Between 1916 and 1963, apparel rose the most, up 179.2%, while food rose the least, up 175.2%, against 180.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.22%
$281
Apparel
2.21%
$279
Food
2.18%
$275
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1916: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1916 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$153
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$128
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$221
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$272
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$281
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $128 by
1940, on its way to $281 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 1916 had the buying
power of $281; 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 1916 to 1963: $100 is worth $281 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1963/