$100 in 1965 is worth $330 in 1984,
because prices increased 229.8% over that period, an average of
6.48% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$330
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
229.8%
Average inflation rate
6.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$330
Price difference ($100 base)
$230
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1965 → 1984
$330
$100 in 1984 → 1965
$30.32
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1984
Between 1965 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 229.8%, which works out to an average of
6.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1984: the 1965 dollar
lost 69.7% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.30: $1,000 becomes
$3,298, and $10,000 becomes $32,984.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.30
$5.00
$16.49
$10.00
$32.98
$20.00
$65.97
$50.00
$165
$100
$330
$500
$1,649
$1,000
$3,298
$5,000
$16,492
$10,000
$32,984
$100,000
$329,841
$1,000,000
$3,298,413
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1984
Between 1965 and 1984, energy rose the most, up 340.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 113.6%, against 229.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.48%
$330
Energy
8.12%
$441
Medical care
7.90%
$424
Transportation
6.40%
$325
Food
6.32%
$320
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.31%
$320
Apparel
4.08%
$214
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$330
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $157 by
1974, on its way to $330 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $330; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1984: $100 is worth $330 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1984/