$100 in 1965 is worth $181 in 1976,
because prices increased 80.6% over that period, an average of
5.52% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$181
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.6%
Average inflation rate
5.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$181
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.63
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1965 → 1976
$181
$100 in 1976 → 1965
$55.36
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1976
Between 1965 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.6%, which works out to an average of
5.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1976: the 1965 dollar
lost 44.6% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1976 at the same ratio, 1.81: $1,000 becomes
$1,806, and $10,000 becomes $18,063.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.81
$5.00
$9.03
$10.00
$18.06
$20.00
$36.13
$50.00
$90.32
$100
$181
$500
$903
$1,000
$1,806
$5,000
$9,032
$10,000
$18,063
$100,000
$180,635
$1,000,000
$1,806,349
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1976
Between 1965 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 106.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.3%, against 80.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.52%
$181
Medical care
6.81%
$206
Energy
6.36%
$197
Food
6.07%
$191
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.25%
$176
Transportation
5.09%
$173
Apparel
4.21%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1976 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$181
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $123 by
1970, on its way to $181 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $181; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1976: $100 is worth $181 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1976/