$100 in 1927 is worth $176 in 1963,
because prices increased 75.9% over that period, an average of
1.58% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$176
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
75.9%
Average inflation rate
1.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$176
Price difference ($100 base)
$75.86
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1927 → 1963
$176
$100 in 1963 → 1927
$56.86
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1963
Between 1927 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.9%, which works out to an average of
1.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1963: the 1927 dollar
lost 43.1% of its purchasing power over
these 36 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.76: $1,000 becomes
$1,759, and $10,000 becomes $17,586.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.76
$5.00
$8.79
$10.00
$17.59
$20.00
$35.17
$50.00
$87.93
$100
$176
$500
$879
$1,000
$1,759
$5,000
$8,793
$10,000
$17,586
$100,000
$175,862
$1,000,000
$1,758,621
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1963
Between 1927 and 1963, food rose the most, up 89.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 85.4%, against 75.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.58%
$176
Food
1.79%
$190
Apparel
1.73%
$185
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 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 1927–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.46
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$170
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $103 by
1945, on its way to $176 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 1927 had the buying
power of $176; 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 1927 to 1963: $100 is worth $176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1963/