$100 in 1917 is worth $239 in 1963,
because prices increased 139.1% over that period, an average of
1.91% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$239
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
139.1%
Average inflation rate
1.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$239
Price difference ($100 base)
$139
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1917 → 1963
$239
$100 in 1963 → 1917
$41.83
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1963
Between 1917 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 139.1%, which works out to an average of
1.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1963: the 1917 dollar
lost 58.2% of its purchasing power over
these 46 years.
1917 is when World War I inflation stopped being a background trend and
became the dominant fact of American economic life. Consumer prices rose
17.4% for the year, more than double the previous year’s already sharp
increase, as the country’s April 6 entry into the war layered federal war
spending on top of an economy already strained by military demand and
worker shortages. Congress paid for the war with the War Revenue Act that
October, which sharply raised income taxes, created a new tax on wartime
business profits, and, in a small but very visible change for ordinary
households, raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 2 cents to 3 cents
that November, the rate’s first move since 1885. Herbert Hoover took over
the new Food Administration in August and asked Americans to conserve food
voluntarily rather than face formal rationing, a campaign that became
famous enough that “Hooverize” entered the language as a verb for cutting
back. None of it slowed prices much: the 17.4% increase would be topped
again the very next year, in 1918.
Every 1917 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 2.39: $1,000 becomes
$2,391, and $10,000 becomes $23,906.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.39
$5.00
$11.95
$10.00
$23.91
$20.00
$47.81
$50.00
$120
$100
$239
$500
$1,195
$1,000
$2,391
$5,000
$11,953
$10,000
$23,906
$100,000
$239,063
$1,000,000
$2,390,625
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1963
Between 1917 and 1963, apparel rose the most, up 132.2%, while food rose the least, up 114.5%, against 139.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.91%
$239
Apparel
1.85%
$232
Food
1.67%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1917: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1917 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$130
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$109
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$188
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$231
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$239
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $109 by
1939, on its way to $239 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 1917 had the buying
power of $239; 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 1917 to 1963: $100 is worth $239 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1963/