$100 in 1951 is worth $119 in 1964,
because prices increased 19.2% over that period, an average of
1.36% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.2%
Average inflation rate
1.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.23
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1951 → 1964
$119
$100 in 1964 → 1951
$83.87
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1964
Between 1951 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.2%, which works out to an average of
1.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1964: the 1951 dollar
lost 16.1% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,192, and $10,000 becomes $11,923.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.96
$10.00
$11.92
$20.00
$23.85
$50.00
$59.62
$100
$119
$500
$596
$1,000
$1,192
$5,000
$5,962
$10,000
$11,923
$100,000
$119,231
$1,000,000
$1,192,308
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1964
Between 1951 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 54.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.7%, against 19.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.36%
$119
Medical care
3.41%
$155
Transportation
2.06%
$130
Food
0.85%
$112
Apparel
0.58%
$108
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.45% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $108 by
1957, on its way to $119 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $119; 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 1951 to 1964: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1964/