$100 in 1953 is worth $116 in 1964,
because prices increased 16.1% over that period, an average of
1.37% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$116
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.1%
Average inflation rate
1.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$116
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.10
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1953 → 1964
$116
$100 in 1964 → 1953
$86.13
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1964
Between 1953 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.1%, which works out to an average of
1.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1964: the 1953 dollar
lost 13.9% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1953 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.16: $1,000 becomes
$1,161, and $10,000 becomes $11,610.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.16
$5.00
$5.81
$10.00
$11.61
$20.00
$23.22
$50.00
$58.05
$100
$116
$500
$581
$1,000
$1,161
$5,000
$5,805
$10,000
$11,610
$100,000
$116,105
$1,000,000
$1,161,049
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1964
Between 1953 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 42.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 9.7%, against 16.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.37%
$116
Medical care
3.25%
$142
Transportation
1.55%
$118
Food
0.98%
$111
Apparel
0.85%
$110
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1953: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1953 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.48% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1953, at end
1953–1960
1.48%
10.9%
$111
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$116
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $108 by
1958, on its way to $116 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 1953 had the buying
power of $116; 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 1953 to 1964: $100 is worth $116 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1964/