$100 in 1957 is worth $110 in 1964,
because prices increased 10.3% over that period, an average of
1.41% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.3%
Average inflation rate
1.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.32
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1957 → 1964
$110
$100 in 1964 → 1957
$90.65
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1964
Between 1957 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.3%, which works out to an average of
1.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1964: the 1957 dollar
lost 9.4% of its purchasing power over
these 7 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,103, and $10,000 becomes $11,032.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.52
$10.00
$11.03
$20.00
$22.06
$50.00
$55.16
$100
$110
$500
$552
$1,000
$1,103
$5,000
$5,516
$10,000
$11,032
$100,000
$110,320
$1,000,000
$1,103,203
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1964
Between 1957 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 24.9%, while energy rose the least, up 4.7%, against 10.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.41%
$110
Medical care
3.22%
$125
Transportation
1.81%
$113
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.60%
$112
Food
1.24%
$109
Apparel
0.88%
$106
Energy
0.65%
$105
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.75% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$110
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $105 by
1960, on its way to $110 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.8% in 1958, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $110; 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 1957 to 1964: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1964/