$100 in 1945 is worth $172 in 1964,
because prices increased 72.2% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.2%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.22
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1945 → 1964
$172
$100 in 1964 → 1945
$58.06
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1964
Between 1945 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.2%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1964: the 1945 dollar
lost 41.9% of its purchasing power over
these 19 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1945 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,722, and $10,000 becomes $17,222.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.61
$10.00
$17.22
$20.00
$34.44
$50.00
$86.11
$100
$172
$500
$861
$1,000
$1,722
$5,000
$8,611
$10,000
$17,222
$100,000
$172,222
$1,000,000
$1,722,222
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1964
Between 1945 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 106.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 50.6%, against 72.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$172
Medical care
3.90%
$207
Transportation
3.65%
$197
Food
3.20%
$182
Apparel
2.18%
$151
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1945: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1945 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$164
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$172
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $149 by
1954, on its way to $172 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 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $172; 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 1945 to 1964: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1964/