$100 in 1963 is worth $269 in 1980,
because prices increased 169.3% over that period, an average of
6.00% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$269
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
169.3%
Average inflation rate
6.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$269
Price difference ($100 base)
$169
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1963 → 1980
$269
$100 in 1980 → 1963
$37.14
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1980
Between 1963 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 169.3%, which works out to an average of
6.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1980: the 1963 dollar
lost 62.9% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1980 at the same ratio, 2.69: $1,000 becomes
$2,693, and $10,000 becomes $26,928.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1980
$1.00
$2.69
$5.00
$13.46
$10.00
$26.93
$20.00
$53.86
$50.00
$135
$100
$269
$500
$1,346
$1,000
$2,693
$5,000
$13,464
$10,000
$26,928
$100,000
$269,281
$1,000,000
$2,692,810
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1980
Between 1963 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 280.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 93.8%, against 169.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.00%
$269
Energy
8.18%
$381
Medical care
6.90%
$311
Food
6.22%
$279
Transportation
5.99%
$269
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.64%
$254
Apparel
3.97%
$194
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1980 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1963, at end
1963–1970
3.45%
26.8%
$127
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$269
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $132 by
1971, on its way to $269 in 1980; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $269; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1980: $100 is worth $269 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1980/