$100 in 1965 is worth $342 in 1985,
because prices increased 241.6% over that period, an average of
6.33% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$342
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
241.6%
Average inflation rate
6.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$342
Price difference ($100 base)
$242
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1965 → 1985
$342
$100 in 1985 → 1965
$29.28
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1985
Between 1965 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 241.6%, which works out to an average of
6.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1985: the 1965 dollar
lost 70.7% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1985 at the same ratio, 3.42: $1,000 becomes
$3,416, and $10,000 becomes $34,159.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.42
$5.00
$17.08
$10.00
$34.16
$20.00
$68.32
$50.00
$171
$100
$342
$500
$1,708
$1,000
$3,416
$5,000
$17,079
$10,000
$34,159
$100,000
$341,587
$1,000,000
$3,415,873
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1985
Between 1965 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 350.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 119.7%, against 241.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.33%
$342
Medical care
7.82%
$450
Energy
7.73%
$444
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.21%
$334
Transportation
6.21%
$334
Food
6.12%
$328
Apparel
4.01%
$220
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1985
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 1965–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$342
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $171 by
1975, on its way to $342 in 1985; 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 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $342; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1985: $100 is worth $342 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1985/