$100 in 1965 is worth $432 in 1991,
because prices increased 332.4% over that period, an average of
5.79% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$432
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
332.4%
Average inflation rate
5.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$432
Price difference ($100 base)
$332
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1965 → 1991
$432
$100 in 1991 → 1965
$23.13
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1991
Between 1965 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 332.4%, which works out to an average of
5.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1991: the 1965 dollar
lost 76.9% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1991 at the same ratio, 4.32: $1,000 becomes
$4,324, and $10,000 becomes $43,238.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.32
$5.00
$21.62
$10.00
$43.24
$20.00
$86.48
$50.00
$216
$100
$432
$500
$2,162
$1,000
$4,324
$5,000
$21,619
$10,000
$43,238
$100,000
$432,381
$1,000,000
$4,323,810
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1991
Between 1965 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 602.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 169.2%, against 332.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.79%
$432
Medical care
7.79%
$702
Energy
5.93%
$448
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.81%
$435
Food
5.71%
$423
Transportation
5.35%
$388
Apparel
3.88%
$269
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$415
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$432
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $207 by
1978, on its way to $432 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $432; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1991: $100 is worth $432 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1991/