$100 in 1954 is worth $117 in 1965,
because prices increased 17.1% over that period, an average of
1.45% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$117
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
17.1%
Average inflation rate
1.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$117
Price difference ($100 base)
$17.10
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1954 → 1965
$117
$100 in 1965 → 1954
$85.40
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1965
Between 1954 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 17.1%, which works out to an average of
1.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.85 buys in 1965: the 1954 dollar
lost 14.6% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.17: $1,000 becomes
$1,171, and $10,000 becomes $11,710.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.17
$5.00
$5.86
$10.00
$11.71
$20.00
$23.42
$50.00
$58.55
$100
$117
$500
$586
$1,000
$1,171
$5,000
$5,855
$10,000
$11,710
$100,000
$117,100
$1,000,000
$1,171,004
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1965
Between 1954 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 41.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 10.9%, against 17.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.45%
$117
Medical care
3.21%
$142
Transportation
1.84%
$122
Food
1.21%
$114
Apparel
0.95%
$111
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.61% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.25% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $108 by
1959, on its way to $117 in 1965; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $117; 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 1954 to 1965: $100 is worth $117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1965/