$100 in 1957 is worth $112 in 1965,
because prices increased 12.1% over that period, an average of
1.44% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$112
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
12.1%
Average inflation rate
1.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$112
Price difference ($100 base)
$12.10
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1957 → 1965
$112
$100 in 1965 → 1957
$89.21
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1965
Between 1957 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 12.1%, which works out to an average of
1.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.89 buys in 1965: the 1957 dollar
lost 10.8% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.12: $1,000 becomes
$1,121, and $10,000 becomes $11,210.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.12
$5.00
$5.60
$10.00
$11.21
$20.00
$22.42
$50.00
$56.05
$100
$112
$500
$560
$1,000
$1,121
$5,000
$5,605
$10,000
$11,210
$100,000
$112,100
$1,000,000
$1,120,996
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1965
Between 1957 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 27.9%, while energy rose the least, up 6.5%, against 12.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.44%
$112
Medical care
3.13%
$128
Transportation
1.78%
$115
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.56%
$113
Food
1.36%
$111
Apparel
0.90%
$107
Energy
0.79%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.75% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.25% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$112
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $106 by
1961, on its way to $112 in 1965; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.8% in 1958, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $112; 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 1957 to 1965: $100 is worth $112 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1965/