$100 in 1963 is worth $472 in 1993,
because prices increased 372.2% over that period, an average of
5.31% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$472
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
372.2%
Average inflation rate
5.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$472
Price difference ($100 base)
$372
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1963 → 1993
$472
$100 in 1993 → 1963
$21.18
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1993
Between 1963 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 372.2%, which works out to an average of
5.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1993: the 1963 dollar
lost 78.8% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1993 at the same ratio, 4.72: $1,000 becomes
$4,722, and $10,000 becomes $47,222.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1993
$1.00
$4.72
$5.00
$23.61
$10.00
$47.22
$20.00
$94.44
$50.00
$236
$100
$472
$500
$2,361
$1,000
$4,722
$5,000
$23,611
$10,000
$47,222
$100,000
$472,222
$1,000,000
$4,722,222
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1993
Between 1963 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 735.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 185.1%, against 372.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.31%
$472
Medical care
7.33%
$836
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.36%
$479
Energy
5.23%
$461
Food
5.17%
$453
Transportation
4.92%
$422
Apparel
3.55%
$285
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$472
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $213 by
1978, on its way to $472 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $472; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1993: $100 is worth $472 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1993/