$100 in 1927 is worth $178 in 1964,
because prices increased 78.2% over that period, an average of
1.57% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$178
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.2%
Average inflation rate
1.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$178
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.16
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1927 → 1964
$178
$100 in 1964 → 1927
$56.13
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1964
Between 1927 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.2%, which works out to an average of
1.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1964: the 1927 dollar
lost 43.9% of its purchasing power over
these 37 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.78: $1,000 becomes
$1,782, and $10,000 becomes $17,816.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.78
$5.00
$8.91
$10.00
$17.82
$20.00
$35.63
$50.00
$89.08
$100
$178
$500
$891
$1,000
$1,782
$5,000
$8,908
$10,000
$17,816
$100,000
$178,161
$1,000,000
$1,781,609
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1964
Between 1927 and 1964, food rose the most, up 92.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 87.0%, against 78.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.57%
$178
Food
1.78%
$192
Apparel
1.71%
$187
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 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 1927–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.46
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$170
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$178
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $103 by
1945, on its way to $178 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 1927 had the buying
power of $178; 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 1927 to 1964: $100 is worth $178 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1964/