$100 in 1963 is worth $713 in 2010,
because prices increased 612.6% over that period, an average of
4.27% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$713
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
612.6%
Average inflation rate
4.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$713
Price difference ($100 base)
$613
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1963 → 2010
$713
$100 in 2010 → 1963
$14.03
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2010
Between 1963 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 612.6%, which works out to an average of
4.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2010: the 1963 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2010 at the same ratio, 7.13: $1,000 becomes
$7,126, and $10,000 becomes $71,260.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2010
$1.00
$7.13
$5.00
$35.63
$10.00
$71.26
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$356
$100
$713
$500
$3,563
$1,000
$7,126
$5,000
$35,630
$10,000
$71,260
$100,000
$712,601
$1,000,000
$7,126,013
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2010
Between 1963 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1511.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 154.8%, against 612.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.27%
$713
Medical care
6.09%
$1,612
Energy
4.87%
$936
Food
4.25%
$706
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.21%
$696
Transportation
3.98%
$626
Apparel
2.01%
$255
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$713
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $371 by
1987, on its way to $713 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $713; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2010: $100 is worth $713 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2010/