$100 in 1933 is worth $235 in 1963,
because prices increased 135.4% over that period, an average of
2.89% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$235
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
135.4%
Average inflation rate
2.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$235
Price difference ($100 base)
$135
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1933 → 1963
$235
$100 in 1963 → 1933
$42.48
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1963
Between 1933 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 135.4%, which works out to an average of
2.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1963: the 1933 dollar
lost 57.5% of its purchasing power over
these 30 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 2.35: $1,000 becomes
$2,354, and $10,000 becomes $23,538.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.35
$5.00
$11.77
$10.00
$23.54
$20.00
$47.08
$50.00
$118
$100
$235
$500
$1,177
$1,000
$2,354
$5,000
$11,769
$10,000
$23,538
$100,000
$235,385
$1,000,000
$2,353,846
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1963
Between 1933 and 1963, food rose the most, up 199.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 149.5%, against 135.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.89%
$235
Food
3.72%
$299
Apparel
3.09%
$249
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$235
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $185 by
1948, on its way to $235 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $235; 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 1933 to 1963: $100 is worth $235 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1963/