$100 in 1963 is worth $775 in 2015,
because prices increased 674.6% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$775
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
674.6%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$775
Price difference ($100 base)
$675
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1963 → 2015
$775
$100 in 2015 → 1963
$12.91
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2015
Between 1963 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 674.6%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2015: the 1963 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2015 at the same ratio, 7.75: $1,000 becomes
$7,746, and $10,000 becomes $77,457.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2015
$1.00
$7.75
$5.00
$38.73
$10.00
$77.46
$20.00
$155
$50.00
$387
$100
$775
$500
$3,873
$1,000
$7,746
$5,000
$38,728
$10,000
$77,457
$100,000
$774,565
$1,000,000
$7,745,654
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2015
Between 1963 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 1753.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 168.4%, against 674.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$775
Medical care
5.78%
$1,854
Energy
4.31%
$898
Food
4.07%
$795
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.98%
$762
Transportation
3.65%
$644
Apparel
1.92%
$268
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$775
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $405 by
1989, on its way to $775 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $775; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2015: $100 is worth $775 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2015/