$100 in 1965 is worth $157 in 1974,
because prices increased 56.5% over that period, an average of
5.10% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$157
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
56.5%
Average inflation rate
5.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$157
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.51
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1965 → 1974
$157
$100 in 1974 → 1965
$63.89
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1974
Between 1965 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 56.5%, which works out to an average of
5.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1974: the 1965 dollar
lost 36.1% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.57: $1,000 becomes
$1,565, and $10,000 becomes $15,651.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.57
$5.00
$7.83
$10.00
$15.65
$20.00
$31.30
$50.00
$78.25
$100
$157
$500
$783
$1,000
$1,565
$5,000
$7,825
$10,000
$15,651
$100,000
$156,508
$1,000,000
$1,565,079
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1974
Between 1965 and 1974, food rose the most, up 71.1%, while transportation rose the least, up 43.6%, against 56.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.10%
$157
Food
6.15%
$171
Medical care
5.95%
$168
Energy
5.82%
$166
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.69%
$151
Apparel
4.23%
$145
Transportation
4.10%
$144
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$157
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $117 by
1969, on its way to $157 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 2.9% in 1966.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $157; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1974: $100 is worth $157 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1974/