$100 in 1921 is worth $171 in 1963,
because prices increased 70.9% over that period, an average of
1.28% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.9%
Average inflation rate
1.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.95
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1921 → 1963
$171
$100 in 1963 → 1921
$58.50
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1963
Between 1921 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.9%, which works out to an average of
1.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1963: the 1921 dollar
lost 41.5% of its purchasing power over
these 42 years.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1921 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,709, and $10,000 becomes $17,095.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.55
$10.00
$17.09
$20.00
$34.19
$50.00
$85.47
$100
$171
$500
$855
$1,000
$1,709
$5,000
$8,547
$10,000
$17,095
$100,000
$170,950
$1,000,000
$1,709,497
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1963
Between 1921 and 1963, food rose the most, up 95.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 41.3%, against 70.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.28%
$171
Food
1.61%
$196
Apparel
0.83%
$141
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1921: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1921 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$78.21
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$135
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$165
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $82.12 by
1941, on its way to $171 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 9.9% in 1932, 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 1921 had the buying
power of $171; 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 1921 to 1963: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1963/