$100 in 1963 is worth $601 in 2003,
because prices increased 501.3% over that period, an average of
4.59% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$601
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
501.3%
Average inflation rate
4.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$601
Price difference ($100 base)
$501
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1963 → 2003
$601
$100 in 2003 → 1963
$16.63
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2003
Between 1963 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 501.3%, which works out to an average of
4.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2003: the 1963 dollar
lost 83.4% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.01: $1,000 becomes
$6,013, and $10,000 becomes $60,131.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.01
$5.00
$30.07
$10.00
$60.13
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$301
$100
$601
$500
$3,007
$1,000
$6,013
$5,000
$30,065
$10,000
$60,131
$100,000
$601,307
$1,000,000
$6,013,072
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2003
Between 1963 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1132.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 157.8%, against 501.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.59%
$601
Medical care
6.48%
$1,233
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.61%
$608
Energy
4.60%
$604
Food
4.49%
$579
Transportation
4.16%
$510
Apparel
2.40%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$601
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $325 by
1983, on its way to $601 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $601; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2003: $100 is worth $601 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2003/