$100 in 1964 is worth $112 in 1968,
because prices increased 12.3% over that period, an average of
2.93% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$112
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
12.3%
Average inflation rate
2.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$112
Price difference ($100 base)
$12.26
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1964 → 1968
$112
$100 in 1968 → 1964
$89.08
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1968
Between 1964 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 12.3%, which works out to an average of
2.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.89 buys in 1968: the 1964 dollar
lost 10.9% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
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.
Every 1964 amount converts to 1968 at the same ratio, 1.12: $1,000 becomes
$1,123, and $10,000 becomes $11,226.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.12
$5.00
$5.61
$10.00
$11.23
$20.00
$22.45
$50.00
$56.13
$100
$112
$500
$561
$1,000
$1,123
$5,000
$5,613
$10,000
$11,226
$100,000
$112,258
$1,000,000
$1,122,581
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1968
Between 1964 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 21.5%, while energy rose the least, up 7.6%, against 12.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.93%
$112
Medical care
5.00%
$122
Apparel
3.22%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.96%
$112
Food
2.89%
$112
Transportation
2.23%
$109
Energy
1.84%
$108
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $105 by
1966, on its way to $112 in 1968; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.2% in 1968, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1965.
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $112; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1968: $100 is worth $112 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1968/