$100 in 1923 is worth $184 in 1965,
because prices increased 84.2% over that period, an average of
1.47% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$184
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.2%
Average inflation rate
1.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$184
Price difference ($100 base)
$84.21
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1923 → 1965
$184
$100 in 1965 → 1923
$54.29
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1965
Between 1923 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.2%, which works out to an average of
1.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1965: the 1923 dollar
lost 45.7% of its purchasing power over
these 42 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.84: $1,000 becomes
$1,842, and $10,000 becomes $18,421.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.84
$5.00
$9.21
$10.00
$18.42
$20.00
$36.84
$50.00
$92.11
$100
$184
$500
$921
$1,000
$1,842
$5,000
$9,211
$10,000
$18,421
$100,000
$184,211
$1,000,000
$1,842,105
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1965
Between 1923 and 1965, food rose the most, up 109.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 76.4%, against 84.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.47%
$184
Food
1.77%
$209
Apparel
1.36%
$176
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $101 by
1943, on its way to $184 in 1965; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, 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 1923 had the buying
power of $184; 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 1923 to 1965: $100 is worth $184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1965/