$100 in 1933 is worth $242 in 1965,
because prices increased 142.3% over that period, an average of
2.80% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$242
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
142.3%
Average inflation rate
2.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$242
Price difference ($100 base)
$142
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1933 → 1965
$242
$100 in 1965 → 1933
$41.27
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1965
Between 1933 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 142.3%, which works out to an average of
2.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1965: the 1933 dollar
lost 58.7% of its purchasing power over
these 32 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 2.42: $1,000 becomes
$2,423, and $10,000 becomes $24,231.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1965
$1.00
$2.42
$5.00
$12.12
$10.00
$24.23
$20.00
$48.46
$50.00
$121
$100
$242
$500
$1,212
$1,000
$2,423
$5,000
$12,115
$10,000
$24,231
$100,000
$242,308
$1,000,000
$2,423,077
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1965
Between 1933 and 1965, food rose the most, up 209.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 154.3%, against 142.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.80%
$242
Food
3.59%
$310
Apparel
2.96%
$254
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$242
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $183 by
1949, on its way to $242 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $242; 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 1933 to 1965: $100 is worth $242 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1965/