$100 in 1964 is worth $335 in 1984,
because prices increased 235.2% over that period, an average of
6.23% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$335
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
235.2%
Average inflation rate
6.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$335
Price difference ($100 base)
$235
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1964 → 1984
$335
$100 in 1984 → 1964
$29.84
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1984
Between 1964 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 235.2%, which works out to an average of
6.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1984: the 1964 dollar
lost 70.2% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.35: $1,000 becomes
$3,352, and $10,000 becomes $33,516.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.35
$5.00
$16.76
$10.00
$33.52
$20.00
$67.03
$50.00
$168
$100
$335
$500
$1,676
$1,000
$3,352
$5,000
$16,758
$10,000
$33,516
$100,000
$335,161
$1,000,000
$3,351,613
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1984
Between 1964 and 1984, energy rose the most, up 348.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 115.9%, against 235.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.23%
$335
Energy
7.79%
$448
Medical care
7.62%
$434
Transportation
6.16%
$330
Food
6.11%
$328
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.05%
$324
Apparel
3.92%
$216
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.81% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1984 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1964, at end
1964–1970
3.81%
25.2%
$125
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$266
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$335
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $159 by
1974, on its way to $335 in 1984; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1965.
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $335; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1984: $100 is worth $335 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1984/