$100 in 1957 is worth $109 in 1963,
because prices increased 8.9% over that period, an average of
1.43% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.9%
Average inflation rate
1.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.90
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1957 → 1963
$109
$100 in 1963 → 1957
$91.83
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1963
Between 1957 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.9%, which works out to an average of
1.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.92 buys in 1963: the 1957 dollar
lost 8.2% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,089, and $10,000 becomes $10,890.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.09
$5.00
$5.44
$10.00
$10.89
$20.00
$21.78
$50.00
$54.45
$100
$109
$500
$544
$1,000
$1,089
$5,000
$5,445
$10,000
$10,890
$100,000
$108,897
$1,000,000
$1,088,968
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1963
Between 1957 and 1963, medical care rose the most, up 22.3%, while energy rose the least, up 5.1%, against 8.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.43%
$109
Medical care
3.42%
$122
Transportation
1.84%
$112
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.61%
$110
Food
1.23%
$108
Apparel
0.88%
$105
Energy
0.84%
$105
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.75% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.11% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$109
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $105 by
1960, on its way to $109 in 1963; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.8% in 1958, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $109; 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 1957 to 1963: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1963/