$100 in 1926 is worth $175 in 1964,
because prices increased 75.1% over that period, an average of
1.49% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$175
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
75.1%
Average inflation rate
1.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$175
Price difference ($100 base)
$75.14
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1926 → 1964
$175
$100 in 1964 → 1926
$57.10
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1964
Between 1926 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.1%, which works out to an average of
1.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1964: the 1926 dollar
lost 42.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.1% in 1926, a third straight year of mild inflation
and part of the price stability that defined the middle of the decade.
Florida’s real estate boom, which had peaked the previous year on
speculative buying of undeveloped land, ended abruptly that September when
the Great Miami Hurricane made landfall near the city, killing hundreds and
wrecking the market for land whose value had rested on continued
speculation rather than anything underneath it. In Detroit, Henry Ford moved
his company to a five-day, 40-hour work week without cutting pay, a break
from the standard six-day schedule that other large employers would
gradually adopt over the following decades; Ford argued publicly that
workers with more leisure time would also become better customers for the
cars his factories built. Consumer prices remained low enough by historical
standards that a first-class stamp still cost just 2 cents, the same price
it had held since mid-1919.
Every 1926 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.75: $1,000 becomes
$1,751, and $10,000 becomes $17,514.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.75
$5.00
$8.76
$10.00
$17.51
$20.00
$35.03
$50.00
$87.57
$100
$175
$500
$876
$1,000
$1,751
$5,000
$8,757
$10,000
$17,514
$100,000
$175,141
$1,000,000
$1,751,412
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1964
Between 1926 and 1964, food rose the most, up 85.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 82.6%, against 75.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.49%
$175
Food
1.64%
$185
Apparel
1.60%
$183
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1926: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1926 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 1926–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1926, at end
1926–1930
-1.44%
-5.6%
$94.35
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$79.10
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$136
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$167
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$175
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $99.44 by
1944, on its way to $175 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 1926 had the buying
power of $175; 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 1926 to 1964: $100 is worth $175 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1964/