$100 in 1965 is worth $141 in 1973,
because prices increased 41.0% over that period, an average of
4.38% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
41.0%
Average inflation rate
4.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.95
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1965 → 1973
$141
$100 in 1973 → 1965
$70.95
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1973
Between 1965 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 41.0%, which works out to an average of
4.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1973: the 1965 dollar
lost 29.1% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,410, and $10,000 becomes $14,095.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.05
$10.00
$14.10
$20.00
$28.19
$50.00
$70.48
$100
$141
$500
$705
$1,000
$1,410
$5,000
$7,048
$10,000
$14,095
$100,000
$140,952
$1,000,000
$1,409,524
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1973
Between 1965 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 54.0%, while energy rose the least, up 28.4%, against 41.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.38%
$141
Medical care
5.54%
$154
Food
5.17%
$150
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.24%
$139
Apparel
3.84%
$135
Transportation
3.25%
$129
Energy
3.17%
$128
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $117 by
1969, on its way to $141 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 2.9% in 1966.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $141; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1973: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1973/