$100 in 1963 is worth $544 in 1999,
because prices increased 444.4% over that period, an average of
4.82% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$544
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
444.4%
Average inflation rate
4.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$544
Price difference ($100 base)
$444
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1963 → 1999
$544
$100 in 1999 → 1963
$18.37
What happened to prices between 1963 and 1999
Between 1963 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 444.4%, which works out to an average of
4.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1999: the 1963 dollar
lost 81.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1999 at the same ratio, 5.44: $1,000 becomes
$5,444, and $10,000 becomes $54,444.
Amount in 1963
Value in 1999
$1.00
$5.44
$5.00
$27.22
$10.00
$54.44
$20.00
$109
$50.00
$272
$100
$544
$500
$2,722
$1,000
$5,444
$5,000
$27,222
$10,000
$54,444
$100,000
$544,444
$1,000,000
$5,444,444
Inflation by spending category, 1963–1999
Between 1963 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 939.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.0%, against 444.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.82%
$544
Medical care
6.72%
$1,040
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.88%
$557
Food
4.73%
$528
Energy
4.40%
$472
Transportation
4.38%
$467
Apparel
2.90%
$280
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$544
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $297 by
1981, on its way to $544 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $544; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 1999: $100 is worth $544 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-1999/