$100 in 1963 is worth $638 in 2005,
because prices increased 538.2% over that period, an average of
4.51% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$638
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
538.2%
Average inflation rate
4.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$638
Price difference ($100 base)
$538
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1963 → 2005
$638
$100 in 2005 → 1963
$15.67
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2005
Between 1963 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 538.2%, which works out to an average of
4.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2005: the 1963 dollar
lost 84.3% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2005 at the same ratio, 6.38: $1,000 becomes
$6,382, and $10,000 becomes $63,824.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2005
$1.00
$6.38
$5.00
$31.91
$10.00
$63.82
$20.00
$128
$50.00
$319
$100
$638
$500
$3,191
$1,000
$6,382
$5,000
$31,912
$10,000
$63,824
$100,000
$638,235
$1,000,000
$6,382,353
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2005
Between 1963 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1241.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 154.8%, against 538.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.51%
$638
Medical care
6.38%
$1,341
Energy
5.02%
$784
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.49%
$632
Food
4.41%
$613
Transportation
4.20%
$563
Apparel
2.25%
$255
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$638
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $325 by
1983, on its way to $638 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $638; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2005: $100 is worth $638 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2005/