$100 in 1965 is worth $517 in 1998,
because prices increased 417.5% over that period, an average of
5.11% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$517
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
417.5%
Average inflation rate
5.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$517
Price difference ($100 base)
$417
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1965 → 1998
$517
$100 in 1998 → 1965
$19.33
What happened to prices between 1965 and 1998
Between 1965 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 417.5%, which works out to an average of
5.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1998: the 1965 dollar
lost 80.7% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1998 at the same ratio, 5.17: $1,000 becomes
$5,175, and $10,000 becomes $51,746.
Amount in 1965
Value in 1998
$1.00
$5.17
$5.00
$25.87
$10.00
$51.75
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$259
$100
$517
$500
$2,587
$1,000
$5,175
$5,000
$25,873
$10,000
$51,746
$100,000
$517,460
$1,000,000
$5,174,603
Inflation by spending category, 1965–1998
Between 1965 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 860.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.2%, against 417.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.11%
$517
Medical care
7.10%
$961
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.19%
$530
Food
4.99%
$499
Energy
4.66%
$449
Transportation
4.62%
$444
Apparel
3.15%
$278
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$517
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $289 by
1981, on its way to $517 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $517; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 1998: $100 is worth $517 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-1998/