$100 in 1965 is worth $571 in 2002,
because prices increased 471.1% over that period, an average of
4.82% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$571
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
471.1%
Average inflation rate
4.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$571
Price difference ($100 base)
$471
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1965 → 2002
$571
$100 in 2002 → 1965
$17.51
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2002
Between 1965 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 471.1%, which works out to an average of
4.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.18 buys in 2002: the 1965 dollar
lost 82.5% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 2002 at the same ratio, 5.71: $1,000 becomes
$5,711, and $10,000 becomes $57,111.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2002
$1.00
$5.71
$5.00
$28.56
$10.00
$57.11
$20.00
$114
$50.00
$286
$100
$571
$500
$2,856
$1,000
$5,711
$5,000
$28,556
$10,000
$57,111
$100,000
$571,111
$1,000,000
$5,711,111
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2002
Between 1965 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1033.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 159.4%, against 471.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.82%
$571
Medical care
6.78%
$1,133
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.88%
$583
Food
4.70%
$547
Energy
4.62%
$531
Transportation
4.33%
$479
Apparel
2.61%
$259
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$571
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $316 by
1983, on its way to $571 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $571; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2002: $100 is worth $571 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2002/