$100 in 1965 is worth $547 in 2000,
because prices increased 446.7% over that period, an average of
4.97% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$547
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
446.7%
Average inflation rate
4.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$547
Price difference ($100 base)
$447
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1965 → 2000
$547
$100 in 2000 → 1965
$18.29
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2000
Between 1965 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 446.7%, which works out to an average of
4.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.18 buys in 2000: the 1965 dollar
lost 81.7% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2000 at the same ratio, 5.47: $1,000 becomes
$5,467, and $10,000 becomes $54,667.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2000
$1.00
$5.47
$5.00
$27.33
$10.00
$54.67
$20.00
$109
$50.00
$273
$100
$547
$500
$2,733
$1,000
$5,467
$5,000
$27,333
$10,000
$54,667
$100,000
$546,667
$1,000,000
$5,466,667
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2000
Between 1965 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 934.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.1%, against 446.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.97%
$547
Medical care
6.90%
$1,035
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.02%
$554
Energy
4.96%
$544
Food
4.83%
$521
Transportation
4.59%
$481
Apparel
2.89%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2000
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 1965–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$547
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $316 by
1983, on its way to $547 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $547; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2000: $100 is worth $547 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2000/