$100 in 1965 is worth $171 in 1975,
because prices increased 70.8% over that period, an average of
5.50% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.8%
Average inflation rate
5.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.79
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1965 → 1975
$171
$100 in 1975 → 1965
$58.55
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1975
Between 1965 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.8%, which works out to an average of
5.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1975: the 1965 dollar
lost 41.4% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,708, and $10,000 becomes $17,079.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.54
$10.00
$17.08
$20.00
$34.16
$50.00
$85.40
$100
$171
$500
$854
$1,000
$1,708
$5,000
$8,540
$10,000
$17,079
$100,000
$170,794
$1,000,000
$1,707,937
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1975
Between 1965 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 88.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 51.7%, against 70.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.50%
$171
Medical care
6.54%
$188
Food
6.39%
$186
Energy
6.28%
$184
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.12%
$165
Transportation
4.62%
$157
Apparel
4.25%
$152
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1975 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $123 by
1970, on its way to $171 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1975: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1975/