$100 in 1932 is worth $223 in 1963,
because prices increased 123.4% over that period, an average of
2.63% a year.
$100 in 1932 has
the same buying power as
$223
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
123.4%
Average inflation rate
2.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$223
Price difference ($100 base)
$123
CPI in 1932
13.7
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1932 → 1963
$223
$100 in 1963 → 1932
$44.77
What happened to prices between 1932 and 1963
Between 1932 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 123.4%, which works out to an average of
2.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1932 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1963: the 1932 dollar
lost 55.2% of its purchasing power over
these 31 years.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
Every 1932 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 2.23: $1,000 becomes
$2,234, and $10,000 becomes $22,336.
Amount in 1932
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.23
$5.00
$11.17
$10.00
$22.34
$20.00
$44.67
$50.00
$112
$100
$223
$500
$1,117
$1,000
$2,234
$5,000
$11,168
$10,000
$22,336
$100,000
$223,358
$1,000,000
$2,233,577
Inflation by spending category, 1932–1963
Between 1932 and 1963, food rose the most, up 190.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 140.5%, against 123.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1932
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1932 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.63%
$223
Food
3.50%
$291
Apparel
2.87%
$241
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1932: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1932 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.27% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1932–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1932, at end
1932–1940
0.27%
2.2%
$102
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$176
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$216
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$223
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1932
$100 from 1932 had already become $176 by
1948, on its way to $223 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 5.1% in 1933, 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 1932 had the buying
power of $223; 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 1932 to 1963: $100 is worth $223 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1932 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1932-to-1963/