$100 in 1965 is worth $510 in 1997,
because prices increased 409.5% over that period, an average of
5.22% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$510
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
409.5%
Average inflation rate
5.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$510
Price difference ($100 base)
$410
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1965 → 1997
$510
$100 in 1997 → 1965
$19.63
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1997
Between 1965 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 409.5%, which works out to an average of
5.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1997: the 1965 dollar
lost 80.4% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1997 at the same ratio, 5.10: $1,000 becomes
$5,095, and $10,000 becomes $50,952.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1997
$1.00
$5.10
$5.00
$25.48
$10.00
$50.95
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$255
$100
$510
$500
$2,548
$1,000
$5,095
$5,000
$25,476
$10,000
$50,952
$100,000
$509,524
$1,000,000
$5,095,238
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1997
Between 1965 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 831.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.0%, against 409.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.22%
$510
Medical care
7.22%
$931
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.28%
$518
Food
5.08%
$489
Energy
5.07%
$487
Transportation
4.83%
$452
Apparel
3.25%
$278
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$510
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $289 by
1981, on its way to $510 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $510; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1997: $100 is worth $510 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1997/