$100 in 1920 is worth $155 in 1964,
because prices increased 55.0% over that period, an average of
1.00% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.0%
Average inflation rate
1.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1920 → 1964
$155
$100 in 1964 → 1920
$64.52
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1964
Between 1920 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.0%, which works out to an average of
1.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1964: the 1920 dollar
lost 35.5% of its purchasing power over
these 44 years.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1920 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,550, and $10,000 becomes $15,500.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.75
$10.00
$15.50
$20.00
$31.00
$50.00
$77.50
$100
$155
$500
$775
$1,000
$1,550
$5,000
$7,750
$10,000
$15,500
$100,000
$155,000
$1,000,000
$1,550,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1964
Between 1920 and 1964, food rose the most, up 50.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 9.7%, against 55.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.00%
$155
Food
0.93%
$150
Apparel
0.21%
$110
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1920: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1920 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$70.00
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$121
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$148
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $81.50 by
1942, on its way to $155 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, 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 1920 had the buying
power of $155; 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 1920 to 1964: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1964/