$100 in 1963 is worth $186 in 1976,
because prices increased 85.9% over that period, an average of
4.89% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$186
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
85.9%
Average inflation rate
4.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$186
Price difference ($100 base)
$85.95
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1963 → 1976
$186
$100 in 1976 → 1963
$53.78
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1976
Between 1963 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 85.9%, which works out to an average of
4.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1976: the 1963 dollar
lost 46.2% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1976 at the same ratio, 1.86: $1,000 becomes
$1,859, and $10,000 becomes $18,595.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.86
$5.00
$9.30
$10.00
$18.59
$20.00
$37.19
$50.00
$92.97
$100
$186
$500
$930
$1,000
$1,859
$5,000
$9,297
$10,000
$18,595
$100,000
$185,948
$1,000,000
$1,859,477
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1976
Between 1963 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 115.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.3%, against 85.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.89%
$186
Medical care
6.09%
$216
Energy
5.46%
$200
Food
5.40%
$198
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.65%
$181
Transportation
4.55%
$178
Apparel
3.70%
$160
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1976 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1963, at end
1963–1970
3.45%
26.8%
$127
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$186
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $120 by
1969, on its way to $186 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $186; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1976: $100 is worth $186 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1976/