$100 in 1964 is worth $692 in 2009,
because prices increased 592.1% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$692
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
592.1%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$692
Price difference ($100 base)
$592
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1964 → 2009
$692
$100 in 2009 → 1964
$14.45
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2009
Between 1964 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 592.1%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2009: the 1964 dollar
lost 85.6% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2009 at the same ratio, 6.92: $1,000 becomes
$6,921, and $10,000 becomes $69,205.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2009
$1.00
$6.92
$5.00
$34.60
$10.00
$69.21
$20.00
$138
$50.00
$346
$100
$692
$500
$3,460
$1,000
$6,921
$5,000
$34,603
$10,000
$69,205
$100,000
$692,055
$1,000,000
$6,920,548
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2009
Between 1964 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 1426.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 153.9%, against 592.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$692
Medical care
6.24%
$1,527
Energy
4.89%
$858
Food
4.39%
$692
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.35%
$679
Transportation
3.95%
$571
Apparel
2.09%
$254
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$692
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $354 by
1986, on its way to $692 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $692; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2009: $100 is worth $692 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2009/