$100 in 1963 is worth $801 in 2017,
because prices increased 701.0% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$801
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
701.0%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$801
Price difference ($100 base)
$701
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1963 → 2017
$801
$100 in 2017 → 1963
$12.48
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2017
Between 1963 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 701.0%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2017: the 1963 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2017 at the same ratio, 8.01: $1,000 becomes
$8,010, and $10,000 becomes $80,105.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2017
$1.00
$8.01
$5.00
$40.05
$10.00
$80.10
$20.00
$160
$50.00
$401
$100
$801
$500
$4,005
$1,000
$8,010
$5,000
$40,052
$10,000
$80,105
$100,000
$801,046
$1,000,000
$8,010,458
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2017
Between 1963 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 1872.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 167.8%, against 701.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$801
Medical care
5.68%
$1,972
Energy
4.16%
$905
Food
3.94%
$804
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.91%
$793
Transportation
3.53%
$652
Apparel
1.84%
$268
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$801
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $405 by
1989, on its way to $801 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $801; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2017: $100 is worth $801 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2017/