$100 in 1919 is worth $179 in 1964,
because prices increased 79.2% over that period, an average of
1.30% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$179
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.2%
Average inflation rate
1.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$179
Price difference ($100 base)
$79.19
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1919 → 1964
$179
$100 in 1964 → 1919
$55.81
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1964
Between 1919 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.2%, which works out to an average of
1.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1964: the 1919 dollar
lost 44.2% of its purchasing power over
these 45 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.79: $1,000 becomes
$1,792, and $10,000 becomes $17,919.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.79
$5.00
$8.96
$10.00
$17.92
$20.00
$35.84
$50.00
$89.60
$100
$179
$500
$896
$1,000
$1,792
$5,000
$8,960
$10,000
$17,919
$100,000
$179,191
$1,000,000
$1,791,908
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1964
Between 1919 and 1964, food rose the most, up 69.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.7%, against 79.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.30%
$179
Food
1.18%
$169
Apparel
0.60%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$179
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $84.97 by
1941, on its way to $179 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, 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 1919 had the buying
power of $179; 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 1919 to 1964: $100 is worth $179 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1964/