$100 in 1914 is worth $310 in 1964,
because prices increased 210.0% over that period, an average of
2.29% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$310
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
210.0%
Average inflation rate
2.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$310
Price difference ($100 base)
$210
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1914 → 1964
$310
$100 in 1964 → 1914
$32.26
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1964
Between 1914 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 210.0%, which works out to an average of
2.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1964: the 1914 dollar
lost 67.7% of its purchasing power over
these 50 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 3.10: $1,000 becomes
$3,100, and $10,000 becomes $31,000.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1964
$1.00
$3.10
$5.00
$15.50
$10.00
$31.00
$20.00
$62.00
$50.00
$155
$100
$310
$500
$1,550
$1,000
$3,100
$5,000
$15,500
$10,000
$31,000
$100,000
$310,000
$1,000,000
$3,100,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1964
Between 1914 and 1964, apparel rose the most, up 215.3%, while food rose the least, up 208.8%, against 210.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.29%
$310
Apparel
2.32%
$315
Food
2.28%
$309
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$310
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $141 by
1938, on its way to $310 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 1914 had the buying
power of $310; 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 1914 to 1964: $100 is worth $310 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1964/