$100 in 1963 is worth $498 in 1995,
because prices increased 398.0% over that period, an average of
5.15% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$498
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
398.0%
Average inflation rate
5.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$498
Price difference ($100 base)
$398
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1963 → 1995
$498
$100 in 1995 → 1963
$20.08
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1995
Between 1963 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 398.0%, which works out to an average of
5.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1995: the 1963 dollar
lost 79.9% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1995 at the same ratio, 4.98: $1,000 becomes
$4,980, and $10,000 becomes $49,804.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1995
$1.00
$4.98
$5.00
$24.90
$10.00
$49.80
$20.00
$99.61
$50.00
$249
$100
$498
$500
$2,490
$1,000
$4,980
$5,000
$24,902
$10,000
$49,804
$100,000
$498,039
$1,000,000
$4,980,392
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1995
Between 1963 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 814.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 181.4%, against 398.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.15%
$498
Medical care
7.16%
$915
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.20%
$507
Food
5.00%
$477
Energy
4.92%
$465
Transportation
4.81%
$450
Apparel
3.29%
$281
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$498
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $237 by
1979, on its way to $498 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $498; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1995: $100 is worth $498 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1995/