$100 in 1963 is worth $358 in 1986,
because prices increased 258.2% over that period, an average of
5.70% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$358
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
258.2%
Average inflation rate
5.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$358
Price difference ($100 base)
$258
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1963 → 1986
$358
$100 in 1986 → 1963
$27.92
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1986
Between 1963 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 258.2%, which works out to an average of
5.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1986: the 1963 dollar
lost 72.1% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.58: $1,000 becomes
$3,582, and $10,000 becomes $35,817.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.58
$5.00
$17.91
$10.00
$35.82
$20.00
$71.63
$50.00
$179
$100
$358
$500
$1,791
$1,000
$3,582
$5,000
$17,908
$10,000
$35,817
$100,000
$358,170
$1,000,000
$3,581,699
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1986
Between 1963 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 406.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 125.8%, against 258.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.70%
$358
Medical care
7.31%
$506
Energy
6.10%
$390
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.69%
$357
Food
5.60%
$350
Transportation
5.34%
$331
Apparel
3.60%
$226
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1986
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 1963–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$358
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $161 by
1974, on its way to $358 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $358; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1986: $100 is worth $358 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1986/