$100 in 1964 is worth $650 in 2006,
because prices increased 550.3% over that period, an average of
4.56% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$650
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
550.3%
Average inflation rate
4.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$650
Price difference ($100 base)
$550
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1964 → 2006
$650
$100 in 2006 → 1964
$15.38
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2006
Between 1964 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 550.3%, which works out to an average of
4.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2006: the 1964 dollar
lost 84.6% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2006 at the same ratio, 6.50: $1,000 becomes
$6,503, and $10,000 becomes $65,032.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2006
$1.00
$6.50
$5.00
$32.52
$10.00
$65.03
$20.00
$130
$50.00
$325
$100
$650
$500
$3,252
$1,000
$6,503
$5,000
$32,516
$10,000
$65,032
$100,000
$650,323
$1,000,000
$6,503,226
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2006
Between 1964 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1266.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 152.6%, against 550.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.56%
$650
Medical care
6.42%
$1,367
Energy
5.30%
$875
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.51%
$637
Food
4.44%
$620
Transportation
4.26%
$576
Apparel
2.23%
$253
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$650
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $335 by
1984, on its way to $650 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $650; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2006: $100 is worth $650 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2006/