$100 in 1964 is worth $174 in 1975,
because prices increased 73.5% over that period, an average of
5.14% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$174
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
73.5%
Average inflation rate
5.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$174
Price difference ($100 base)
$73.55
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1964 → 1975
$174
$100 in 1975 → 1964
$57.62
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1975
Between 1964 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 73.5%, which works out to an average of
5.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1975: the 1964 dollar
lost 42.4% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.74: $1,000 becomes
$1,735, and $10,000 becomes $17,355.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.74
$5.00
$8.68
$10.00
$17.35
$20.00
$34.71
$50.00
$86.77
$100
$174
$500
$868
$1,000
$1,735
$5,000
$8,677
$10,000
$17,355
$100,000
$173,548
$1,000,000
$1,735,484
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1975
Between 1964 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 93.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 53.3%, against 73.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.14%
$174
Medical care
6.16%
$193
Food
6.00%
$190
Energy
5.86%
$187
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.77%
$167
Transportation
4.34%
$160
Apparel
3.96%
$153
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.81% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1975 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1964, at end
1964–1970
3.81%
25.2%
$125
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$174
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $118 by
1969, on its way to $174 in 1975; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1965.
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $174; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1975: $100 is worth $174 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1975/