$100 in 1964 is worth $835 in 2020,
because prices increased 734.9% over that period, an average of
3.86% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$835
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
734.9%
Average inflation rate
3.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$835
Price difference ($100 base)
$735
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1964 → 2020
$835
$100 in 2020 → 1964
$11.98
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2020
Between 1964 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 734.9%, which works out to an average of
3.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2020: the 1964 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 2020 at the same ratio, 8.35: $1,000 becomes
$8,349, and $10,000 becomes $83,487.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2020
$1.00
$8.35
$5.00
$41.74
$10.00
$83.49
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$417
$100
$835
$500
$4,174
$1,000
$8,349
$5,000
$41,744
$10,000
$83,487
$100,000
$834,874
$1,000,000
$8,348,742
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2020
Between 1964 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 2009.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 149.6%, against 734.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.86%
$835
Medical care
5.60%
$2,109
Energy
3.95%
$875
Food
3.89%
$848
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.85%
$829
Transportation
3.37%
$641
Apparel
1.65%
$250
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1964–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$835
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $453 by
1992, on its way to $835 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $835; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2020: $100 is worth $835 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2020/