$100 in 1964 is worth $594 in 2003,
because prices increased 493.5% over that period, an average of
4.67% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$594
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
493.5%
Average inflation rate
4.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$594
Price difference ($100 base)
$494
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1964 → 2003
$594
$100 in 2003 → 1964
$16.85
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2003
Between 1964 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 493.5%, which works out to an average of
4.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2003: the 1964 dollar
lost 83.2% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2003 at the same ratio, 5.94: $1,000 becomes
$5,935, and $10,000 becomes $59,355.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2003
$1.00
$5.94
$5.00
$29.68
$10.00
$59.35
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$297
$100
$594
$500
$2,968
$1,000
$5,935
$5,000
$29,677
$10,000
$59,355
$100,000
$593,548
$1,000,000
$5,935,484
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2003
Between 1964 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1107.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 155.6%, against 493.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.67%
$594
Medical care
6.60%
$1,208
Energy
4.73%
$607
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.69%
$598
Food
4.57%
$571
Transportation
4.22%
$502
Apparel
2.44%
$256
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$555
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$594
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $335 by
1984, on its way to $594 in 2003; 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 1998.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $594; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2003: $100 is worth $594 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2003/