$100 in 1924 is worth $179 in 1963,
because prices increased 78.9% over that period, an average of
1.50% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$179
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.9%
Average inflation rate
1.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$179
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.95
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1924 → 1963
$179
$100 in 1963 → 1924
$55.88
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1963
Between 1924 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.9%, which works out to an average of
1.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1963: the 1924 dollar
lost 44.1% of its purchasing power over
these 39 years.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1924 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.79: $1,000 becomes
$1,789, and $10,000 becomes $17,895.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.79
$5.00
$8.95
$10.00
$17.89
$20.00
$35.79
$50.00
$89.47
$100
$179
$500
$895
$1,000
$1,789
$5,000
$8,947
$10,000
$17,895
$100,000
$178,947
$1,000,000
$1,789,474
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1963
Between 1924 and 1963, food rose the most, up 104.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.0%, against 78.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.50%
$179
Food
1.85%
$205
Apparel
1.45%
$175
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1924: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1924 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 1924–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$179
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $103 by
1944, on its way to $179 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 1924 had the buying
power of $179; 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 1924 to 1963: $100 is worth $179 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1963/