$100 in 1963 is worth $821 in 2018,
because prices increased 720.6% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$821
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
720.6%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$821
Price difference ($100 base)
$721
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1963 → 2018
$821
$100 in 2018 → 1963
$12.19
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2018
Between 1963 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 720.6%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2018: the 1963 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2018 at the same ratio, 8.21: $1,000 becomes
$8,206, and $10,000 becomes $82,061.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2018
$1.00
$8.21
$5.00
$41.03
$10.00
$82.06
$20.00
$164
$50.00
$410
$100
$821
$500
$4,103
$1,000
$8,206
$5,000
$41,031
$10,000
$82,061
$100,000
$820,611
$1,000,000
$8,206,111
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2018
Between 1963 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1911.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 167.9%, against 720.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$821
Medical care
5.61%
$2,011
Energy
4.22%
$973
Food
3.89%
$815
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.88%
$810
Transportation
3.55%
$682
Apparel
1.81%
$268
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1963–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$821
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $445 by
1991, on its way to $821 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $821; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2018: $100 is worth $821 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2018/