$100 in 1958 is worth $109 in 1965,
because prices increased 9.0% over that period, an average of
1.24% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
9.0%
Average inflation rate
1.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$9.00
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1958 → 1965
$109
$100 in 1965 → 1958
$91.75
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1965
Between 1958 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 9.0%, which works out to an average of
1.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.92 buys in 1965: the 1958 dollar
lost 8.3% of its purchasing power over
these 7 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,090, and $10,000 becomes $10,900.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.09
$5.00
$5.45
$10.00
$10.90
$20.00
$21.80
$50.00
$54.50
$100
$109
$500
$545
$1,000
$1,090
$5,000
$5,450
$10,000
$10,900
$100,000
$108,997
$1,000,000
$1,089,965
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1965
Between 1958 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 22.3%, while energy rose the least, up 6.5%, against 9.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.24%
$109
Medical care
2.92%
$122
Transportation
1.57%
$112
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.43%
$110
Apparel
0.99%
$107
Food
0.92%
$107
Energy
0.91%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1965
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 1.25% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1965 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$109
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $103 by
1961, on its way to $109 in 1965; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.7% in 1960, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $109; 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 1958 to 1965: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1965/