$100 in 1963 is worth $176 in 1975,
because prices increased 75.8% over that period, an average of
4.81% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$176
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
75.8%
Average inflation rate
4.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$176
Price difference ($100 base)
$75.82
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1963 → 1975
$176
$100 in 1975 → 1963
$56.88
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1975
Between 1963 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.8%, which works out to an average of
4.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1975: the 1963 dollar
lost 43.1% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.76: $1,000 becomes
$1,758, and $10,000 becomes $17,582.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.76
$5.00
$8.79
$10.00
$17.58
$20.00
$35.16
$50.00
$87.91
$100
$176
$500
$879
$1,000
$1,758
$5,000
$8,791
$10,000
$17,582
$100,000
$175,817
$1,000,000
$1,758,170
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1975
Between 1963 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 97.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 54.6%, against 75.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.81%
$176
Medical care
5.82%
$197
Food
5.60%
$192
Energy
5.32%
$186
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.50%
$169
Transportation
4.11%
$162
Apparel
3.70%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1975 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1963, at end
1963–1970
3.45%
26.8%
$127
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $120 by
1969, on its way to $176 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $176; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1975: $100 is worth $176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1975/