$100 in 1964 is worth $234 in 1979,
because prices increased 134.2% over that period, an average of
5.84% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$234
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
134.2%
Average inflation rate
5.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$234
Price difference ($100 base)
$134
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1964 → 1979
$234
$100 in 1979 → 1964
$42.70
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1979
Between 1964 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 134.2%, which works out to an average of
5.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1979: the 1964 dollar
lost 57.3% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1979 at the same ratio, 2.34: $1,000 becomes
$2,342, and $10,000 becomes $23,419.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.34
$5.00
$11.71
$10.00
$23.42
$20.00
$46.84
$50.00
$117
$100
$234
$500
$1,171
$1,000
$2,342
$5,000
$11,710
$10,000
$23,419
$100,000
$234,194
$1,000,000
$2,341,935
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1979
Between 1964 and 1979, energy rose the most, up 192.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 79.5%, against 134.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.84%
$234
Energy
7.41%
$292
Medical care
6.96%
$274
Food
6.40%
$254
Transportation
5.54%
$225
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.48%
$223
Apparel
3.98%
$179
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.81% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1964, at end
1964–1970
3.81%
25.2%
$125
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$234
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $131 by
1971, on its way to $234 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1965.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $234; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1979: $100 is worth $234 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1979/