$100 in 1964 is worth $726 in 2011,
because prices increased 625.6% over that period, an average of
4.31% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$726
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
625.6%
Average inflation rate
4.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$726
Price difference ($100 base)
$626
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1964 → 2011
$726
$100 in 2011 → 1964
$13.78
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2011
Between 1964 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 625.6%, which works out to an average of
4.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2011: the 1964 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2011 at the same ratio, 7.26: $1,000 becomes
$7,256, and $10,000 becomes $72,561.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2011
$1.00
$7.26
$5.00
$36.28
$10.00
$72.56
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$363
$100
$726
$500
$3,628
$1,000
$7,256
$5,000
$36,280
$10,000
$72,561
$100,000
$725,610
$1,000,000
$7,256,097
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2011
Between 1964 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 1527.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.2%, against 625.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.31%
$726
Medical care
6.11%
$1,627
Energy
5.20%
$1,084
Food
4.30%
$723
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.22%
$697
Transportation
4.15%
$676
Apparel
2.04%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$703
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$726
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $382 by
1988, on its way to $726 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $726; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2011: $100 is worth $726 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2011/