$100 in 1964 is worth $102 in 1965,
because prices increased 1.6% over that period, an average of
1.61% a year.
$100 in 1964 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.6%
Average inflation rate
1.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.61
CPI in 1964
31
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1964 → 1965
$102
$100 in 1965 → 1964
$98.41
What happened to prices between 1964 and 1965
Between 1964 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 31 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.6%, which works out to an average of
1.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1964 bought what
$0.98 buys in 1965: the 1964 dollar
lost 1.6% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
Every 1964 amount converts to 1965 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,016, and $10,000 becomes $10,161.
Amount in 1964
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.08
$10.00
$10.16
$20.00
$20.32
$50.00
$50.81
$100
$102
$500
$508
$1,000
$1,016
$5,000
$5,081
$10,000
$10,161
$100,000
$101,613
$1,000,000
$1,016,129
Inflation by spending category, 1964–1965
Between 1964 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 2.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.1%, against 1.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1964
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1964 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.61%
$102
Medical care
2.44%
$102
Food
2.22%
$102
Energy
1.78%
$102
Transportation
1.59%
$102
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.24%
$101
Apparel
1.06%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1964: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1964
$100 from 1964grew to $102 by 1965; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1964 had the buying
power of $102; 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 1964 to 1965: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1964 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1964-to-1965/