$100 in 1964 is worth $131 in 1971,
because prices increased 30.6% over that period, an average of
3.89% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.6%
Average inflation rate
3.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.65
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1964 → 1971
$131
$100 in 1971 → 1964
$76.54
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1971
Between 1964 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.6%, which works out to an average of
3.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1971: the 1964 dollar
lost 23.5% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,306, and $10,000 becomes $13,065.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.53
$10.00
$13.06
$20.00
$26.13
$50.00
$65.32
$100
$131
$500
$653
$1,000
$1,306
$5,000
$6,532
$10,000
$13,065
$100,000
$130,645
$1,000,000
$1,306,452
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1971
Between 1964 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 46.7%, while energy rose the least, up 17.8%, against 30.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.89%
$131
Medical care
5.63%
$147
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.07%
$132
Apparel
3.72%
$129
Food
3.62%
$128
Transportation
3.33%
$126
Energy
2.37%
$118
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.81% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1964, at end
1964–1970
3.81%
25.2%
$125
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $108 by
1967, on its way to $131 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1965.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1971: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1971/