$100 in 1963 is worth $835 in 2019,
because prices increased 735.5% over that period, an average of
3.86% a year.
$100 in 1963 has
the same buying power as
$835
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
735.5%
Average inflation rate
3.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$835
Price difference ($100 base)
$735
CPI in 1963
30.6
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1963 → 2019
$835
$100 in 2019 → 1963
$11.97
What happened to prices between 1963 and 2019
Between 1963 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.6 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 735.5%, which works out to an average of
3.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1963 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2019: the 1963 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 2019 at the same ratio, 8.35: $1,000 becomes
$8,355, and $10,000 becomes $83,548.
Amount in 1963
Value in 2019
$1.00
$8.35
$5.00
$41.77
$10.00
$83.55
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$418
$100
$835
$500
$4,177
$1,000
$8,355
$5,000
$41,774
$10,000
$83,548
$100,000
$835,480
$1,000,000
$8,354,804
Inflation by spending category, 1963–2019
Between 1963 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 1968.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 164.5%, against 735.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1963
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1963 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.86%
$835
Medical care
5.56%
$2,068
Energy
4.11%
$953
Food
3.85%
$831
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.85%
$828
Transportation
3.48%
$680
Apparel
1.75%
$265
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1963: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1963 to 2019
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 1963–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$835
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1963
$100 from 1963 had already become $445 by
1991, on its way to $835 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1963 had the buying
power of $835; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1963 to 2019: $100 is worth $835 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1963 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1963-to-2019/