$100 in 1964 is worth $874 in 2021,
because prices increased 774.1% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$874
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
774.1%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$874
Price difference ($100 base)
$774
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1964 → 2021
$874
$100 in 2021 → 1964
$11.44
What happened to prices between 1964 and 2021
Between 1964 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 774.1%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2021: the 1964 dollar
lost 88.6% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2021 at the same ratio, 8.74: $1,000 becomes
$8,741, and $10,000 becomes $87,410.
Amount in 1964
Value in 2021
$1.00
$8.74
$5.00
$43.70
$10.00
$87.41
$20.00
$175
$50.00
$437
$100
$874
$500
$4,370
$1,000
$8,741
$5,000
$43,705
$10,000
$87,410
$100,000
$874,097
$1,000,000
$8,740,968
Inflation by spending category, 1964–2021
Between 1964 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 2035.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 155.8%, against 774.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$874
Medical care
5.52%
$2,135
Energy
4.23%
$1,059
Food
3.89%
$882
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.84%
$858
Transportation
3.56%
$735
Apparel
1.66%
$256
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1964 to 2021
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 1964–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$874
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964 had already become $453 by
1992, on its way to $874 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $874; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1964 to 2021: $100 is worth $874 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-2021/