$100 in 1965 is worth $470 in 1994,
because prices increased 370.5% over that period, an average of
5.49% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$470
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
370.5%
Average inflation rate
5.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$470
Price difference ($100 base)
$370
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1965 → 1994
$470
$100 in 1994 → 1965
$21.26
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1994
Between 1965 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 370.5%, which works out to an average of
5.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1994: the 1965 dollar
lost 78.7% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1994 at the same ratio, 4.70: $1,000 becomes
$4,705, and $10,000 becomes $47,048.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1994
$1.00
$4.70
$5.00
$23.52
$10.00
$47.05
$20.00
$94.10
$50.00
$235
$100
$470
$500
$2,352
$1,000
$4,705
$5,000
$23,524
$10,000
$47,048
$100,000
$470,476
$1,000,000
$4,704,762
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1994
Between 1965 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 737.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.1%, against 370.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.49%
$470
Medical care
7.60%
$837
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.55%
$479
Energy
5.38%
$457
Food
5.31%
$448
Transportation
5.08%
$421
Apparel
3.60%
$279
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$470
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $230 by
1979, on its way to $470 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $470; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1994: $100 is worth $470 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1994/