$100 in 1965 is worth $459 in 1993,
because prices increased 358.7% over that period, an average of
5.59% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$459
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
358.7%
Average inflation rate
5.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$459
Price difference ($100 base)
$359
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1965 → 1993
$459
$100 in 1993 → 1965
$21.80
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1993
Between 1965 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 358.7%, which works out to an average of
5.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1993: the 1965 dollar
lost 78.2% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1993 at the same ratio, 4.59: $1,000 becomes
$4,587, and $10,000 becomes $45,873.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1993
$1.00
$4.59
$5.00
$22.94
$10.00
$45.87
$20.00
$91.75
$50.00
$229
$100
$459
$500
$2,294
$1,000
$4,587
$5,000
$22,937
$10,000
$45,873
$100,000
$458,730
$1,000,000
$4,587,302
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1993
Between 1965 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 699.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.7%, against 358.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.59%
$459
Medical care
7.71%
$799
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.65%
$465
Energy
5.56%
$455
Food
5.41%
$438
Transportation
5.16%
$409
Apparel
3.74%
$280
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$459
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $230 by
1979, on its way to $459 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $459; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1993: $100 is worth $459 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1993/