$100 in 1963 is worth $750 in 2012,
because prices increased 650.3% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$750
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
650.3%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$750
Price difference ($100 base)
$650
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1963 → 2012
$750
$100 in 2012 → 1963
$13.33
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2012
Between 1963 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 650.3%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2012: the 1963 dollar
lost 86.7% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 2012 at the same ratio, 7.50: $1,000 becomes
$7,503, and $10,000 becomes $75,031.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2012
$1.00
$7.50
$5.00
$37.52
$10.00
$75.03
$20.00
$150
$50.00
$375
$100
$750
$500
$3,752
$1,000
$7,503
$5,000
$37,515
$10,000
$75,031
$100,000
$750,307
$1,000,000
$7,503,072
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2012
Between 1963 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 1621.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 169.2%, against 650.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$750
Medical care
5.98%
$1,722
Energy
4.99%
$1,089
Food
4.20%
$752
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.12%
$723
Transportation
4.06%
$703
Apparel
2.04%
$269
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2012
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 1963–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$750
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $371 by
1987, on its way to $750 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $750; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2012: $100 is worth $750 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2012/