$100 in 1913 is worth $313 in 1964,
because prices increased 213.1% over that period, an average of
2.26% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$313
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
213.1%
Average inflation rate
2.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$313
Price difference ($100 base)
$213
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1913 → 1964
$313
$100 in 1964 → 1913
$31.94
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1964
Between 1913 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 213.1%, which works out to an average of
2.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1964: the 1913 dollar
lost 68.1% of its purchasing power over
these 51 years.
1913 is where this site’s price history begins, because it’s where the Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ own consumer price data begins. The CPI wasn’t published in real time back then;
the BLS built the earliest index retroactively from retail price records collected starting
in 1913, which makes every dollar figure on this site ultimately anchored to that year’s
prices. It was also the year the machinery of modern federal economic policy was built. The
16th Amendment, ratified in February, cleared the constitutional path for a federal income
tax, and the Revenue Act that followed in October imposed a top rate of just 7% on income
above $500,000, a narrow tax that would later be reshaped into the broad-based system that
funds the government today. In December, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating
the central bank that would eventually take on fighting inflation as one of its core jobs,
including the 19%-plus interest rates it deployed against the 1970s and early 1980s
price surge. Consumer life in 1913 was correspondingly simple by later
standards: a first-class stamp cost 2 cents, a price that held from 1885 all the way to
1917, and the Ford Motor Company introduced the moving assembly line at its Highland Park
plant that year, a manufacturing breakthrough that would spend the next decade driving down
the cost of a car faster than prices elsewhere were rising.
Every 1913 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 3.13: $1,000 becomes
$3,131, and $10,000 becomes $31,313.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1964
$1.00
$3.13
$5.00
$15.66
$10.00
$31.31
$20.00
$62.63
$50.00
$157
$100
$313
$500
$1,566
$1,000
$3,131
$5,000
$15,657
$10,000
$31,313
$100,000
$313,131
$1,000,000
$3,131,313
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1964
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.26%
$313
Food
2.28%
$315
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1913: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), apparel (1914–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1913 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 10.57% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1913–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1913, at end
1913–1920
10.57%
102.0%
$202
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$169
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$141
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$243
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$299
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$313
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $140 by
1939, on its way to $313 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1964
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $313; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1964: $100 is worth $313 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1964/