$100 in 1930 is worth $183 in 1963,
because prices increased 83.2% over that period, an average of
1.85% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$183
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
83.2%
Average inflation rate
1.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$183
Price difference ($100 base)
$83.23
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1930 → 1963
$183
$100 in 1963 → 1930
$54.58
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1963
Between 1930 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 83.2%, which works out to an average of
1.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1963: the 1930 dollar
lost 45.4% of its purchasing power over
these 33 years.
Consumer prices fell 2.3% in 1930, a mild decline compared with what was
coming but the first sign that the summer 1929 downturn was not going to be
short. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that contraction from
August 1929, and by the time it finally bottomed out in March 1933 it would
run 43 months, the longest of any downturn in the NBER’s chronology back to
1854. Congress made the trade picture worse in June, when President Hoover
signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising duties on more than 20,000
imported goods to some of the highest levels in a century. Trading partners
retaliated with tariffs of their own, and global trade volumes collapsed
over the next several years, deepening a downturn economists still debate
how much the tariff itself worsened. The financial system cracked that fall:
a regional banking panic culminated in the December 11 failure of the Bank
of United States in New York, at the time the largest bank failure in
American history, wiping out more than $200 million in deposits. It was the
first of four banking panics that would hit the country before 1933 was
out. Consumer prices still stood 68.7% above their 1913
starting point, but the direction had clearly turned. First-class postage
held at 2 cents, unchanged for eleven straight years.
Every 1930 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.83: $1,000 becomes
$1,832, and $10,000 becomes $18,323.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.83
$5.00
$9.16
$10.00
$18.32
$20.00
$36.65
$50.00
$91.62
$100
$183
$500
$916
$1,000
$1,832
$5,000
$9,162
$10,000
$18,323
$100,000
$183,234
$1,000,000
$1,832,335
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1963
Between 1930 and 1963, food rose the most, up 99.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 93.8%, against 83.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.85%
$183
Food
2.11%
$199
Apparel
2.03%
$194
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1930: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1930 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 1930–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1930, at end
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.83
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$144
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$177
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$183
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $117 by
1946, on its way to $183 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 1930 had the buying
power of $183; 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 1930 to 1963: $100 is worth $183 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1963/