$100 in 1964 is worth $825 in 2019,
because prices increased 724.7% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$825
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
724.7%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$825
Price difference ($100 base)
$725
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1964 → 2019
$825
$100 in 2019 → 1964
$12.13
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2019
Between 1964 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 724.7%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2019: the 1964 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2019 at the same ratio, 8.25: $1,000 becomes
$8,247, and $10,000 becomes $82,470.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2019
$1.00
$8.25
$5.00
$41.24
$10.00
$82.47
$20.00
$165
$50.00
$412
$100
$825
$500
$4,124
$1,000
$8,247
$5,000
$41,235
$10,000
$82,470
$100,000
$824,700
$1,000,000
$8,247,000
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2019
Between 1964 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 1926.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 162.3%, against 724.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$825
Medical care
5.62%
$2,026
Energy
4.19%
$957
Food
3.90%
$820
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.89%
$815
Transportation
3.52%
$669
Apparel
1.77%
$262
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2019
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$825
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $453 by
1992, on its way to $825 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $825; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2019: $100 is worth $825 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2019/