$100 in 1934 is worth $228 in 1963,
because prices increased 128.4% over that period, an average of
2.89% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$228
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
128.4%
Average inflation rate
2.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$228
Price difference ($100 base)
$128
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1934 → 1963
$228
$100 in 1963 → 1934
$43.79
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1963
Between 1934 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 128.4%, which works out to an average of
2.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1963: the 1934 dollar
lost 56.2% of its purchasing power over
these 29 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 2.28: $1,000 becomes
$2,284, and $10,000 becomes $22,836.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.28
$5.00
$11.42
$10.00
$22.84
$20.00
$45.67
$50.00
$114
$100
$228
$500
$1,142
$1,000
$2,284
$5,000
$11,418
$10,000
$22,836
$100,000
$228,358
$1,000,000
$2,283,582
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1963
Between 1934 and 1963, food rose the most, up 168.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 127.7%, against 128.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.89%
$228
Food
3.46%
$268
Apparel
2.88%
$228
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$228
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $180 by
1948, on its way to $228 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 1934 had the buying
power of $228; 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 1934 to 1963: $100 is worth $228 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1963/