$100 in 1963 is worth $525 in 1997,
because prices increased 424.5% over that period, an average of
5.00% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$525
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
424.5%
Average inflation rate
5.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$525
Price difference ($100 base)
$425
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1963 → 1997
$525
$100 in 1997 → 1963
$19.07
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1997
Between 1963 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 424.5%, which works out to an average of
5.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1997: the 1963 dollar
lost 80.9% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1997 at the same ratio, 5.25: $1,000 becomes
$5,245, and $10,000 becomes $52,451.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1997
$1.00
$5.25
$5.00
$26.23
$10.00
$52.45
$20.00
$105
$50.00
$262
$100
$525
$500
$2,623
$1,000
$5,245
$5,000
$26,225
$10,000
$52,451
$100,000
$524,510
$1,000,000
$5,245,098
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1997
Between 1963 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 873.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.4%, against 424.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.00%
$525
Medical care
6.92%
$973
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.04%
$533
Food
4.88%
$506
Energy
4.81%
$493
Transportation
4.64%
$467
Apparel
3.11%
$283
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$525
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $237 by
1979, on its way to $525 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $525; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1997: $100 is worth $525 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1997/