$100 in 1964 is worth $210 in 1978,
because prices increased 110.3% over that period, an average of
5.45% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$210
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
110.3%
Average inflation rate
5.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$210
Price difference ($100 base)
$110
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1964 → 1978
$210
$100 in 1978 → 1964
$47.55
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1978
Between 1964 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 110.3%, which works out to an average of
5.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1978: the 1964 dollar
lost 52.5% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1978 at the same ratio, 2.10: $1,000 becomes
$2,103, and $10,000 becomes $21,032.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.10
$5.00
$10.52
$10.00
$21.03
$20.00
$42.06
$50.00
$105
$100
$210
$500
$1,052
$1,000
$2,103
$5,000
$10,516
$10,000
$21,032
$100,000
$210,323
$1,000,000
$2,103,226
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1978
Between 1964 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 151.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.1%, against 110.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.45%
$210
Medical care
6.80%
$251
Energy
6.24%
$233
Food
6.08%
$229
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.18%
$203
Transportation
4.94%
$196
Apparel
3.95%
$172
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.81% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1964, at end
1964–1970
3.81%
25.2%
$125
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$210
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $131 by
1971, on its way to $210 in 1978; 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 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $210; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1978: $100 is worth $210 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1978/