$100 in 1963 is worth $297 in 1981,
because prices increased 197.1% over that period, an average of
6.24% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$297
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
197.1%
Average inflation rate
6.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$297
Price difference ($100 base)
$197
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1963 → 1981
$297
$100 in 1981 → 1963
$33.66
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1981
Between 1963 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 197.1%, which works out to an average of
6.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1981: the 1963 dollar
lost 66.3% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1981 at the same ratio, 2.97: $1,000 becomes
$2,971, and $10,000 becomes $29,706.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1981
$1.00
$2.97
$5.00
$14.85
$10.00
$29.71
$20.00
$59.41
$50.00
$149
$100
$297
$500
$1,485
$1,000
$2,971
$5,000
$14,853
$10,000
$29,706
$100,000
$297,059
$1,000,000
$2,970,588
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1981
Between 1963 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 332.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 103.2%, against 197.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.24%
$297
Energy
8.47%
$432
Medical care
7.10%
$344
Transportation
6.33%
$302
Food
6.31%
$301
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.90%
$281
Apparel
4.02%
$203
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$297
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $137 by
1972, on its way to $297 in 1981; 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 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $297; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1981: $100 is worth $297 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1981/