$100 in 1963 is worth $445 in 1991,
because prices increased 345.1% over that period, an average of
5.48% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$445
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
345.1%
Average inflation rate
5.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$445
Price difference ($100 base)
$345
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1963 → 1991
$445
$100 in 1991 → 1963
$22.47
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1991
Between 1963 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 345.1%, which works out to an average of
5.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1991: the 1963 dollar
lost 77.5% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1991 at the same ratio, 4.45: $1,000 becomes
$4,451, and $10,000 becomes $44,510.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.45
$5.00
$22.25
$10.00
$44.51
$20.00
$89.02
$50.00
$223
$100
$445
$500
$2,225
$1,000
$4,451
$5,000
$22,255
$10,000
$44,510
$100,000
$445,098
$1,000,000
$4,450,980
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1991
Between 1963 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 634.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.4%, against 345.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.48%
$445
Medical care
7.38%
$734
Energy
5.55%
$454
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.49%
$447
Food
5.42%
$438
Transportation
5.08%
$401
Apparel
3.67%
$274
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1991
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 1963–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$427
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$445
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $198 by
1977, on its way to $445 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $445; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1991: $100 is worth $445 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1991/