$100 in 1963 is worth $387 in 1988,
because prices increased 286.6% over that period, an average of
5.56% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$387
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
286.6%
Average inflation rate
5.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$387
Price difference ($100 base)
$287
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1963 → 1988
$387
$100 in 1988 → 1963
$25.87
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1988
Between 1963 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 286.6%, which works out to an average of
5.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1988: the 1963 dollar
lost 74.1% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1988 at the same ratio, 3.87: $1,000 becomes
$3,866, and $10,000 becomes $38,660.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1988
$1.00
$3.87
$5.00
$19.33
$10.00
$38.66
$20.00
$77.32
$50.00
$193
$100
$387
$500
$1,933
$1,000
$3,866
$5,000
$19,330
$10,000
$38,660
$100,000
$386,601
$1,000,000
$3,866,013
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1988
Between 1963 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 475.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 146.1%, against 286.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.56%
$387
Medical care
7.25%
$575
Energy
5.65%
$395
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.57%
$388
Food
5.49%
$380
Transportation
5.16%
$352
Apparel
3.67%
$246
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1988
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 1963–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$387
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $176 by
1975, on its way to $387 in 1988; 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 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $387; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1988: $100 is worth $387 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1988/