$100 in 1965 is worth $133 in 1972,
because prices increased 32.7% over that period, an average of
4.12% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
32.7%
Average inflation rate
4.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$32.70
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1965 → 1972
$133
$100 in 1972 → 1965
$75.36
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1972
Between 1965 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 32.7%, which works out to an average of
4.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1972: the 1965 dollar
lost 24.6% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1972 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,327, and $10,000 becomes $13,270.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.63
$10.00
$13.27
$20.00
$26.54
$50.00
$66.35
$100
$133
$500
$663
$1,000
$1,327
$5,000
$6,635
$10,000
$13,270
$100,000
$132,698
$1,000,000
$1,326,984
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1972
Between 1965 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 48.0%, while energy rose the least, up 18.8%, against 32.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.12%
$133
Medical care
5.76%
$148
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.33%
$135
Food
3.90%
$131
Apparel
3.86%
$130
Transportation
3.25%
$125
Energy
2.49%
$119
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 4.26% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (3.79% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$133
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $110 by
1968, on its way to $133 in 1972; 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 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $133; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1972: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1972/