$100 in 1935 is worth $223 in 1963,
because prices increased 123.4% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$223
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
123.4%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$223
Price difference ($100 base)
$123
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1935 → 1963
$223
$100 in 1963 → 1935
$44.77
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1963
Between 1935 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
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1963: the 1935 dollar
lost 55.2% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
Every 1935 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 2.23: $1,000 becomes
$2,234, and $10,000 becomes $22,336.
Amount in 1935
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, 1935–1963
Between 1935 and 1963, food rose the most, up 150.8%, while transportation rose the least, up 117.6%, against 123.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$223
Food
3.34%
$251
Medical care
3.12%
$236
Apparel
2.95%
$225
Transportation
2.82%
$218
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1935: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1935 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
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 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $174 by
1949, 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1935 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 1935 to 1963: $100 is worth $223 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1963/