$100 in 1919 is worth $182 in 1965,
because prices increased 82.1% over that period, an average of
1.31% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$182
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
82.1%
Average inflation rate
1.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$182
Price difference ($100 base)
$82.08
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1919 → 1965
$182
$100 in 1965 → 1919
$54.92
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1965
Between 1919 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 82.1%, which works out to an average of
1.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1965: the 1919 dollar
lost 45.1% of its purchasing power over
these 46 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.82: $1,000 becomes
$1,821, and $10,000 becomes $18,208.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.82
$5.00
$9.10
$10.00
$18.21
$20.00
$36.42
$50.00
$91.04
$100
$182
$500
$910
$1,000
$1,821
$5,000
$9,104
$10,000
$18,208
$100,000
$182,081
$1,000,000
$1,820,809
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1965
Between 1919 and 1965, food rose the most, up 73.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 32.0%, against 82.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.31%
$182
Food
1.20%
$173
Apparel
0.61%
$132
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$182
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $84.97 by
1941, on its way to $182 in 1965; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1965
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $182; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1965: $100 is worth $182 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1965/