$100 in 1963 is worth $145 in 1973,
because prices increased 45.1% over that period, an average of
3.79% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
45.1%
Average inflation rate
3.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$45.10
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1963 → 1973
$145
$100 in 1973 → 1963
$68.92
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1973
Between 1963 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 45.1%, which works out to an average of
3.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1973: the 1963 dollar
lost 31.1% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,451, and $10,000 becomes $14,510.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.25
$10.00
$14.51
$20.00
$29.02
$50.00
$72.55
$100
$145
$500
$725
$1,000
$1,451
$5,000
$7,255
$10,000
$14,510
$100,000
$145,098
$1,000,000
$1,450,980
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1973
Between 1963 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 61.0%, while energy rose the least, up 30.1%, against 45.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.79%
$145
Medical care
4.88%
$161
Food
4.48%
$155
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.67%
$143
Apparel
3.25%
$138
Transportation
2.92%
$133
Energy
2.67%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1963, at end
1963–1970
3.45%
26.8%
$127
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $114 by
1968, on its way to $145 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $145; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1973: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1973/