$100 in 1963 is worth $213 in 1978,
because prices increased 113.1% over that period, an average of
5.17% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$213
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
113.1%
Average inflation rate
5.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$213
Price difference ($100 base)
$113
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1963 → 1978
$213
$100 in 1978 → 1963
$46.93
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1978
Between 1963 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 113.1%, which works out to an average of
5.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1978: the 1963 dollar
lost 53.1% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1978 at the same ratio, 2.13: $1,000 becomes
$2,131, and $10,000 becomes $21,307.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.13
$5.00
$10.65
$10.00
$21.31
$20.00
$42.61
$50.00
$107
$100
$213
$500
$1,065
$1,000
$2,131
$5,000
$10,654
$10,000
$21,307
$100,000
$213,072
$1,000,000
$2,130,719
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1978
Between 1963 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 156.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.6%, against 113.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.17%
$213
Medical care
6.48%
$256
Energy
5.78%
$232
Food
5.76%
$232
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.94%
$206
Transportation
4.72%
$200
Apparel
3.74%
$174
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1963, at end
1963–1970
3.45%
26.8%
$127
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$213
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $127 by
1970, on its way to $213 in 1978; 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 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $213; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1978: $100 is worth $213 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1978/