$100 in 1960 is worth $105 in 1964,
because prices increased 4.7% over that period, an average of
1.16% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$105
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
4.7%
Average inflation rate
1.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$105
Price difference ($100 base)
$4.73
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1960 → 1964
$105
$100 in 1964 → 1960
$95.48
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1964
Between 1960 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 4.7%, which works out to an average of
1.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.95 buys in 1964: the 1960 dollar
lost 4.5% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1960 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.05: $1,000 becomes
$1,047, and $10,000 becomes $10,473.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.05
$5.00
$5.24
$10.00
$10.47
$20.00
$20.95
$50.00
$52.36
$100
$105
$500
$524
$1,000
$1,047
$5,000
$5,236
$10,000
$10,473
$100,000
$104,730
$1,000,000
$1,047,297
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1964
Between 1960 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 10.3%, while energy rose the least, up 0.4%, against 4.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.16%
$105
Medical care
2.48%
$110
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.36%
$106
Transportation
1.32%
$105
Food
1.23%
$105
Apparel
0.86%
$104
Energy
0.11%
$100
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $102 by
1962, on its way to $105 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.3% in 1963, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $105; 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 1960 to 1964: $100 is worth $105 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1964/