$100 in 1946 is worth $159 in 1964,
because prices increased 59.0% over that period, an average of
2.61% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$159
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.0%
Average inflation rate
2.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$159
Price difference ($100 base)
$58.97
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1946 → 1964
$159
$100 in 1964 → 1946
$62.90
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1964
Between 1946 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.0%, which works out to an average of
2.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1964: the 1946 dollar
lost 37.1% of its purchasing power over
these 18 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1946 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.59: $1,000 becomes
$1,590, and $10,000 becomes $15,897.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.59
$5.00
$7.95
$10.00
$15.90
$20.00
$31.79
$50.00
$79.49
$100
$159
$500
$795
$1,000
$1,590
$5,000
$7,949
$10,000
$15,897
$100,000
$158,974
$1,000,000
$1,589,744
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1964
Between 1946 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 96.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 37.5%, against 59.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.61%
$159
Medical care
3.83%
$197
Transportation
3.57%
$188
Food
2.61%
$159
Apparel
1.78%
$138
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1946: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1946 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.44% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$152
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$159
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $137 by
1955, on its way to $159 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 1946 had the buying
power of $159; 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 1946 to 1964: $100 is worth $159 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1964/