$100 in 1963 is worth $659 in 2006,
because prices increased 558.8% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$659
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
558.8%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$659
Price difference ($100 base)
$559
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1963 → 2006
$659
$100 in 2006 → 1963
$15.18
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2006
Between 1963 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 558.8%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2006: the 1963 dollar
lost 84.8% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2006 at the same ratio, 6.59: $1,000 becomes
$6,588, and $10,000 becomes $65,882.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2006
$1.00
$6.59
$5.00
$32.94
$10.00
$65.88
$20.00
$132
$50.00
$329
$100
$659
$500
$3,294
$1,000
$6,588
$5,000
$32,941
$10,000
$65,882
$100,000
$658,824
$1,000,000
$6,588,235
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2006
Between 1963 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1295.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 154.8%, against 558.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$659
Medical care
6.32%
$1,395
Energy
5.16%
$871
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.44%
$647
Food
4.36%
$628
Transportation
4.20%
$585
Apparel
2.20%
$255
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$659
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $352 by
1985, on its way to $659 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $659; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2006: $100 is worth $659 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2006/