$100 in 1965 is worth $348 in 1986,
because prices increased 247.9% over that period, an average of
6.12% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$348
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
247.9%
Average inflation rate
6.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$348
Price difference ($100 base)
$248
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1965 → 1986
$348
$100 in 1986 → 1965
$28.74
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1986
Between 1965 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 247.9%, which works out to an average of
6.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1986: the 1965 dollar
lost 71.3% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1986 at the same ratio, 3.48: $1,000 becomes
$3,479, and $10,000 becomes $34,794.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1986
$1.00
$3.48
$5.00
$17.40
$10.00
$34.79
$20.00
$69.59
$50.00
$174
$100
$348
$500
$1,740
$1,000
$3,479
$5,000
$17,397
$10,000
$34,794
$100,000
$347,937
$1,000,000
$3,479,365
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1986
Between 1965 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 384.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 121.5%, against 247.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.12%
$348
Medical care
7.80%
$484
Energy
6.63%
$385
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.10%
$347
Food
5.98%
$339
Transportation
5.71%
$321
Apparel
3.86%
$222
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1986
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 1965–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$348
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $171 by
1975, on its way to $348 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $348; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1986: $100 is worth $348 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1986/