$100 in 1965 is worth $484 in 1995,
because prices increased 383.8% over that period, an average of
5.40% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$484
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
383.8%
Average inflation rate
5.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$484
Price difference ($100 base)
$384
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1965 → 1995
$484
$100 in 1995 → 1965
$20.67
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1995
Between 1965 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 383.8%, which works out to an average of
5.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1995: the 1965 dollar
lost 79.3% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1995 at the same ratio, 4.84: $1,000 becomes
$4,838, and $10,000 becomes $48,381.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1995
$1.00
$4.84
$5.00
$24.19
$10.00
$48.38
$20.00
$96.76
$50.00
$242
$100
$484
$500
$2,419
$1,000
$4,838
$5,000
$24,190
$10,000
$48,381
$100,000
$483,810
$1,000,000
$4,838,095
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1995
Between 1965 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 775.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 176.2%, against 383.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.40%
$484
Medical care
7.50%
$875
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.46%
$493
Food
5.23%
$461
Energy
5.21%
$459
Transportation
5.03%
$436
Apparel
3.44%
$276
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$484
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $262 by
1980, on its way to $484 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $484; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1995: $100 is worth $484 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1995/