$100 in 1963 is worth $161 in 1974,
because prices increased 61.1% over that period, an average of
4.43% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
61.1%
Average inflation rate
4.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$61.11
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1963 → 1974
$161
$100 in 1974 → 1963
$62.07
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1974
Between 1963 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 61.1%, which works out to an average of
4.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1974: the 1963 dollar
lost 37.9% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,611, and $10,000 becomes $16,111.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.06
$10.00
$16.11
$20.00
$32.22
$50.00
$80.56
$100
$161
$500
$806
$1,000
$1,611
$5,000
$8,056
$10,000
$16,111
$100,000
$161,111
$1,000,000
$1,611,111
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1974
Between 1963 and 1974, food rose the most, up 77.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.0%, against 61.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.43%
$161
Food
5.34%
$177
Medical care
5.27%
$176
Energy
4.86%
$169
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.09%
$155
Transportation
3.64%
$148
Apparel
3.63%
$148
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1963, at end
1963–1970
3.45%
26.8%
$127
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$161
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $114 by
1968, on its way to $161 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $161; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1974: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1974/