$100 in 1958 is worth $106 in 1963,
because prices increased 5.9% over that period, an average of
1.15% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
5.9%
Average inflation rate
1.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$5.88
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1958 → 1963
$106
$100 in 1963 → 1958
$94.44
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1963
Between 1958 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 5.9%, which works out to an average of
1.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.94 buys in 1963: the 1958 dollar
lost 5.6% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,059, and $10,000 becomes $10,588.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.29
$10.00
$10.59
$20.00
$21.18
$50.00
$52.94
$100
$106
$500
$529
$1,000
$1,059
$5,000
$5,294
$10,000
$10,588
$100,000
$105,882
$1,000,000
$1,058,824
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1963
Between 1958 and 1963, medical care rose the most, up 17.0%, while food rose the least, up 3.0%, against 5.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.15%
$106
Medical care
3.19%
$117
Transportation
1.56%
$108
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.44%
$107
Apparel
1.01%
$105
Energy
1.00%
$105
Food
0.59%
$103
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1963
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.20% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.11% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1963 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$106
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $102 by
1960, on its way to $106 in 1963; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.7% in 1960, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $106; 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 1958 to 1963: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1963/