$100 in 1954 is worth $114 in 1963,
because prices increased 13.8% over that period, an average of
1.44% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$114
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.8%
Average inflation rate
1.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$114
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.75
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1954 → 1963
$114
$100 in 1963 → 1954
$87.91
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1963
Between 1954 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.8%, which works out to an average of
1.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1963: the 1954 dollar
lost 12.1% of its purchasing power over
these 9 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.14: $1,000 becomes
$1,138, and $10,000 becomes $11,375.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.14
$5.00
$5.69
$10.00
$11.38
$20.00
$22.75
$50.00
$56.88
$100
$114
$500
$569
$1,000
$1,138
$5,000
$5,688
$10,000
$11,375
$100,000
$113,755
$1,000,000
$1,137,546
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1963
Between 1954 and 1963, medical care rose the most, up 35.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.8%, against 13.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.44%
$114
Medical care
3.42%
$135
Transportation
1.89%
$118
Food
1.09%
$110
Apparel
0.94%
$109
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.61% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.11% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$114
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $107 by
1958, on its way to $114 in 1963; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $114; 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 1954 to 1963: $100 is worth $114 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1963/