$100 in 1965 is worth $498 in 1996,
because prices increased 398.1% over that period, an average of
5.32% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$498
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
398.1%
Average inflation rate
5.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$498
Price difference ($100 base)
$398
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1965 → 1996
$498
$100 in 1996 → 1965
$20.08
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1996
Between 1965 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 398.1%, which works out to an average of
5.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1996: the 1965 dollar
lost 79.9% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1996 at the same ratio, 4.98: $1,000 becomes
$4,981, and $10,000 becomes $49,810.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1996
$1.00
$4.98
$5.00
$24.90
$10.00
$49.81
$20.00
$99.62
$50.00
$249
$100
$498
$500
$2,490
$1,000
$4,981
$5,000
$24,905
$10,000
$49,810
$100,000
$498,095
$1,000,000
$4,980,952
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1996
Between 1965 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 805.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.5%, against 398.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.32%
$498
Medical care
7.37%
$906
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.37%
$506
Energy
5.20%
$481
Food
5.16%
$476
Transportation
4.96%
$448
Apparel
3.32%
$276
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$498
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $289 by
1981, on its way to $498 in 1996; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $498; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1996: $100 is worth $498 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1996/