$100 in 1963 is worth $325 in 1983,
because prices increased 225.5% over that period, an average of
6.08% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$325
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
225.5%
Average inflation rate
6.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$325
Price difference ($100 base)
$225
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1963 → 1983
$325
$100 in 1983 → 1963
$30.72
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1983
Between 1963 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 225.5%, which works out to an average of
6.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1983: the 1963 dollar
lost 69.3% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.25: $1,000 becomes
$3,255, and $10,000 becomes $32,549.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.25
$5.00
$16.27
$10.00
$32.55
$20.00
$65.10
$50.00
$163
$100
$325
$500
$1,627
$1,000
$3,255
$5,000
$16,275
$10,000
$32,549
$100,000
$325,490
$1,000,000
$3,254,902
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1983
Between 1963 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 342.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 113.6%, against 225.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.08%
$325
Energy
7.71%
$442
Medical care
7.41%
$417
Transportation
6.01%
$321
Food
5.98%
$320
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.87%
$313
Apparel
3.87%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1983
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 1963–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$325
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $145 by
1973, on its way to $325 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $325; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1983: $100 is worth $325 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1983/