$100 in 1963 is worth $352 in 1985,
because prices increased 251.6% over that period, an average of
5.88% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$352
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
251.6%
Average inflation rate
5.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$352
Price difference ($100 base)
$252
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1963 → 1985
$352
$100 in 1985 → 1963
$28.44
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1985
Between 1963 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 251.6%, which works out to an average of
5.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1985: the 1963 dollar
lost 71.6% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1985 at the same ratio, 3.52: $1,000 becomes
$3,516, and $10,000 becomes $35,163.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.52
$5.00
$17.58
$10.00
$35.16
$20.00
$70.33
$50.00
$176
$100
$352
$500
$1,758
$1,000
$3,516
$5,000
$17,582
$10,000
$35,163
$100,000
$351,634
$1,000,000
$3,516,340
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1985
Between 1963 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 371.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 123.9%, against 251.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.88%
$352
Medical care
7.30%
$471
Energy
7.07%
$450
Transportation
5.78%
$344
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.76%
$343
Food
5.71%
$340
Apparel
3.73%
$224
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1985
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 1963–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$352
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $161 by
1974, on its way to $352 in 1985; 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 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $352; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1985: $100 is worth $352 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1985/