$100 in 1964 is worth $506 in 1996,
because prices increased 406.1% over that period, an average of
5.20% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$506
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
406.1%
Average inflation rate
5.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$506
Price difference ($100 base)
$406
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1964 → 1996
$506
$100 in 1996 → 1964
$19.76
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1996
Between 1964 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 406.1%, which works out to an average of
5.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1996: the 1964 dollar
lost 80.2% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1996 at the same ratio, 5.06: $1,000 becomes
$5,061, and $10,000 becomes $50,613.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1996
$1.00
$5.06
$5.00
$25.31
$10.00
$50.61
$20.00
$101
$50.00
$253
$100
$506
$500
$2,531
$1,000
$5,061
$5,000
$25,306
$10,000
$50,613
$100,000
$506,129
$1,000,000
$5,061,290
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1996
Between 1964 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 827.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.4%, against 406.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.20%
$506
Medical care
7.21%
$928
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.24%
$513
Energy
5.09%
$489
Food
5.07%
$487
Transportation
4.85%
$455
Apparel
3.25%
$278
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$506
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $266 by
1980, on its way to $506 in 1996; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $506; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 1996: $100 is worth $506 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1996/