$100 in 1965 is worth $129 in 1971,
because prices increased 28.6% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$129
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
28.6%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$129
Price difference ($100 base)
$28.57
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1965 → 1971
$129
$100 in 1971 → 1965
$77.78
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1971
Between 1965 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 28.6%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1971: the 1965 dollar
lost 22.2% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
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.
Every 1965 amount converts to 1971 at the same ratio, 1.29: $1,000 becomes
$1,286, and $10,000 becomes $12,857.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.29
$5.00
$6.43
$10.00
$12.86
$20.00
$25.71
$50.00
$64.29
$100
$129
$500
$643
$1,000
$1,286
$5,000
$6,429
$10,000
$12,857
$100,000
$128,571
$1,000,000
$1,285,714
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1971
Between 1965 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 43.3%, while energy rose the least, up 15.7%, against 28.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$129
Medical care
6.17%
$143
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.55%
$131
Apparel
4.18%
$128
Food
3.85%
$125
Transportation
3.63%
$124
Energy
2.46%
$116
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $110 by
1968, on its way to $129 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 2.9% in 1966.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $129; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1971: $100 is worth $129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1971/