$100 in 1920 is worth $153 in 1963,
because prices increased 53.0% over that period, an average of
0.99% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$153
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
53.0%
Average inflation rate
0.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$153
Price difference ($100 base)
$53.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1920 → 1963
$153
$100 in 1963 → 1920
$65.36
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1963
Between 1920 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 53.0%, which works out to an average of
0.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1963: the 1920 dollar
lost 34.6% of its purchasing power over
these 43 years.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1920 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.53: $1,000 becomes
$1,530, and $10,000 becomes $15,300.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.53
$5.00
$7.65
$10.00
$15.30
$20.00
$30.60
$50.00
$76.50
$100
$153
$500
$765
$1,000
$1,530
$5,000
$7,650
$10,000
$15,300
$100,000
$153,000
$1,000,000
$1,530,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1963
Between 1920 and 1963, food rose the most, up 48.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.8%, against 53.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.99%
$153
Food
0.92%
$148
Apparel
0.20%
$109
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1920: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1920 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$70.00
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$121
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$148
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$153
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $81.50 by
1942, on its way to $153 in 1963; 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 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 1920 had the buying
power of $153; 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 1920 to 1963: $100 is worth $153 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1963/