$100 in 1963 is worth $484 in 1994,
because prices increased 384.3% over that period, an average of
5.22% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$484
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
384.3%
Average inflation rate
5.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$484
Price difference ($100 base)
$384
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1963 → 1994
$484
$100 in 1994 → 1963
$20.65
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1994
Between 1963 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 384.3%, which works out to an average of
5.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1994: the 1963 dollar
lost 79.4% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1994 at the same ratio, 4.84: $1,000 becomes
$4,843, and $10,000 becomes $48,431.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1994
$1.00
$4.84
$5.00
$24.22
$10.00
$48.43
$20.00
$96.86
$50.00
$242
$100
$484
$500
$2,422
$1,000
$4,843
$5,000
$24,216
$10,000
$48,431
$100,000
$484,314
$1,000,000
$4,843,137
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1994
Between 1963 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 775.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 184.4%, against 384.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.22%
$484
Medical care
7.25%
$876
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.28%
$492
Food
5.08%
$464
Energy
5.07%
$463
Transportation
4.85%
$435
Apparel
3.43%
$284
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$484
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $237 by
1979, on its way to $484 in 1994; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $484; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1994: $100 is worth $484 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1994/