$100 in 1927 is worth $181 in 1965,
because prices increased 81.0% over that period, an average of
1.57% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$181
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
81.0%
Average inflation rate
1.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$181
Price difference ($100 base)
$81.03
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1927 → 1965
$181
$100 in 1965 → 1927
$55.24
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1965
Between 1927 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 81.0%, which works out to an average of
1.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1965: the 1927 dollar
lost 44.8% of its purchasing power over
these 38 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.81: $1,000 becomes
$1,810, and $10,000 becomes $18,103.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.81
$5.00
$9.05
$10.00
$18.10
$20.00
$36.21
$50.00
$90.52
$100
$181
$500
$905
$1,000
$1,810
$5,000
$9,052
$10,000
$18,103
$100,000
$181,034
$1,000,000
$1,810,345
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1965
Between 1927 and 1965, food rose the most, up 96.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 88.9%, against 81.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.57%
$181
Food
1.79%
$196
Apparel
1.69%
$189
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 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 1927–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.46
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$170
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$181
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $103 by
1945, on its way to $181 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 1927 had the buying
power of $181; 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 1927 to 1965: $100 is worth $181 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1965/