$100 in 1963 is worth $579 in 2001,
because prices increased 478.8% over that period, an average of
4.73% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$579
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
478.8%
Average inflation rate
4.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$579
Price difference ($100 base)
$479
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1963 → 2001
$579
$100 in 2001 → 1963
$17.28
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2001
Between 1963 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 478.8%, which works out to an average of
4.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2001: the 1963 dollar
lost 82.7% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2001 at the same ratio, 5.79: $1,000 becomes
$5,788, and $10,000 becomes $57,876.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2001
$1.00
$5.79
$5.00
$28.94
$10.00
$57.88
$20.00
$116
$50.00
$289
$100
$579
$500
$2,894
$1,000
$5,788
$5,000
$28,938
$10,000
$57,876
$100,000
$578,758
$1,000,000
$5,787,582
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2001
Between 1963 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1032.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.4%, against 478.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.73%
$579
Medical care
6.59%
$1,132
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.76%
$585
Energy
4.70%
$572
Food
4.62%
$557
Transportation
4.32%
$499
Apparel
2.66%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2001
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$563
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$579
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $297 by
1981, on its way to $579 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $579; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2001: $100 is worth $579 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2001/