$100 in 1964 is worth $478 in 1994,
because prices increased 378.1% over that period, an average of
5.35% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$478
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
378.1%
Average inflation rate
5.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$478
Price difference ($100 base)
$378
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1964 → 1994
$478
$100 in 1994 → 1964
$20.92
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1994
Between 1964 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 378.1%, which works out to an average of
5.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1994: the 1964 dollar
lost 79.1% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1994 at the same ratio, 4.78: $1,000 becomes
$4,781, and $10,000 becomes $47,806.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1994
$1.00
$4.78
$5.00
$23.90
$10.00
$47.81
$20.00
$95.61
$50.00
$239
$100
$478
$500
$2,390
$1,000
$4,781
$5,000
$23,903
$10,000
$47,806
$100,000
$478,065
$1,000,000
$4,780,645
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1994
Between 1964 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 757.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.0%, against 378.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.35%
$478
Medical care
7.43%
$858
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.40%
$485
Energy
5.26%
$465
Food
5.20%
$458
Transportation
4.96%
$428
Apparel
3.52%
$282
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1994 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$422
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$478
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $234 by
1979, on its way to $478 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $478; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1994: $100 is worth $478 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1994/