$100 in 1965 is worth $306 in 1982,
because prices increased 206.3% over that period, an average of
6.81% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$306
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
206.3%
Average inflation rate
6.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$306
Price difference ($100 base)
$206
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1965 → 1982
$306
$100 in 1982 → 1965
$32.64
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1982
Between 1965 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 206.3%, which works out to an average of
6.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1982: the 1965 dollar
lost 67.4% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.06: $1,000 becomes
$3,063, and $10,000 becomes $30,635.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.06
$5.00
$15.32
$10.00
$30.63
$20.00
$61.27
$50.00
$153
$100
$306
$500
$1,532
$1,000
$3,063
$5,000
$15,317
$10,000
$30,635
$100,000
$306,349
$1,000,000
$3,063,492
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1982
Between 1965 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 333.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 104.6%, against 206.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.81%
$306
Energy
9.01%
$433
Medical care
7.95%
$367
Transportation
6.76%
$304
Food
6.73%
$302
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.53%
$293
Apparel
4.30%
$205
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1965, at end
1965–1970
4.26%
23.2%
$123
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$262
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$306
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $141 by
1973, on its way to $306 in 1982; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 2.9% in 1966.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $306; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1982: $100 is worth $306 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1982/