$100 in 1923 is worth $181 in 1964,
because prices increased 81.3% over that period, an average of
1.46% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$181
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
81.3%
Average inflation rate
1.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$181
Price difference ($100 base)
$81.29
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1923 → 1964
$181
$100 in 1964 → 1923
$55.16
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1964
Between 1923 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 81.3%, which works out to an average of
1.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1964: the 1923 dollar
lost 44.8% of its purchasing power over
these 41 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.81: $1,000 becomes
$1,813, and $10,000 becomes $18,129.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.81
$5.00
$9.06
$10.00
$18.13
$20.00
$36.26
$50.00
$90.64
$100
$181
$500
$906
$1,000
$1,813
$5,000
$9,064
$10,000
$18,129
$100,000
$181,287
$1,000,000
$1,812,865
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1964
Between 1923 and 1964, food rose the most, up 104.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 74.5%, against 81.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.46%
$181
Food
1.76%
$205
Apparel
1.37%
$175
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$181
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $101 by
1943, on its way to $181 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 9.9% in 1932, 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 1923 had the buying
power of $181; 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 1923 to 1964: $100 is worth $181 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1964/