$100 in 1963 is worth $513 in 1996,
because prices increased 412.7% over that period, an average of
5.08% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$513
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
412.7%
Average inflation rate
5.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$513
Price difference ($100 base)
$413
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1963 → 1996
$513
$100 in 1996 → 1963
$19.50
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1996
Between 1963 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 412.7%, which works out to an average of
5.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1996: the 1963 dollar
lost 80.5% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1996 at the same ratio, 5.13: $1,000 becomes
$5,127, and $10,000 becomes $51,275.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1996
$1.00
$5.13
$5.00
$25.64
$10.00
$51.27
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$256
$100
$513
$500
$2,564
$1,000
$5,127
$5,000
$25,637
$10,000
$51,275
$100,000
$512,745
$1,000,000
$5,127,451
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1996
Between 1963 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 846.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.8%, against 412.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.08%
$513
Medical care
7.05%
$947
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.13%
$521
Food
4.95%
$493
Energy
4.92%
$487
Transportation
4.75%
$463
Apparel
3.18%
$281
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$513
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $237 by
1979, on its way to $513 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $513; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1996: $100 is worth $513 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1996/