$100 in 1963 is worth $114 in 1968,
because prices increased 13.7% over that period, an average of
2.61% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$114
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.7%
Average inflation rate
2.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$114
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.73
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1963 → 1968
$114
$100 in 1968 → 1963
$87.93
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1968
Between 1963 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.7%, which works out to an average of
2.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1968: the 1963 dollar
lost 12.1% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
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.
Every 1963 amount converts to 1968 at the same ratio, 1.14: $1,000 becomes
$1,137, and $10,000 becomes $11,373.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.14
$5.00
$5.69
$10.00
$11.37
$20.00
$22.75
$50.00
$56.86
$100
$114
$500
$569
$1,000
$1,137
$5,000
$5,686
$10,000
$11,373
$100,000
$113,725
$1,000,000
$1,137,255
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1968
Between 1963 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 24.1%, while energy rose the least, up 7.1%, against 13.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.61%
$114
Medical care
4.41%
$124
Apparel
2.74%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.68%
$114
Food
2.57%
$114
Transportation
2.11%
$111
Energy
1.38%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $103 by
1965, on its way to $114 in 1968; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.2% in 1968, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $114; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1968: $100 is worth $114 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1968/