$100 in 1964 is worth $609 in 2004,
because prices increased 509.4% over that period, an average of
4.62% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$609
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
509.4%
Average inflation rate
4.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$609
Price difference ($100 base)
$509
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1964 → 2004
$609
$100 in 2004 → 1964
$16.41
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2004
Between 1964 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 509.4%, which works out to an average of
4.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2004: the 1964 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2004 at the same ratio, 6.09: $1,000 becomes
$6,094, and $10,000 becomes $60,935.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2004
$1.00
$6.09
$5.00
$30.47
$10.00
$60.94
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$305
$100
$609
$500
$3,047
$1,000
$6,094
$5,000
$30,468
$10,000
$60,935
$100,000
$609,355
$1,000,000
$6,093,548
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2004
Between 1964 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 1160.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 154.5%, against 509.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.62%
$609
Medical care
6.54%
$1,261
Energy
4.88%
$673
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.62%
$609
Food
4.54%
$591
Transportation
4.20%
$519
Apparel
2.36%
$255
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$609
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $335 by
1984, on its way to $609 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $609; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2004: $100 is worth $609 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2004/