$100 in 1965 is worth $584 in 2003,
because prices increased 484.1% over that period, an average of
4.75% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$584
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
484.1%
Average inflation rate
4.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$584
Price difference ($100 base)
$484
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1965 → 2003
$584
$100 in 2003 → 1965
$17.12
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2003
Between 1965 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 484.1%, which works out to an average of
4.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2003: the 1965 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2003 at the same ratio, 5.84: $1,000 becomes
$5,841, and $10,000 becomes $58,413.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2003
$1.00
$5.84
$5.00
$29.21
$10.00
$58.41
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$292
$100
$584
$500
$2,921
$1,000
$5,841
$5,000
$29,206
$10,000
$58,413
$100,000
$584,127
$1,000,000
$5,841,270
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2003
Between 1965 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1079.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 152.9%, against 484.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.75%
$584
Medical care
6.71%
$1,179
Energy
4.81%
$596
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.79%
$591
Food
4.63%
$559
Transportation
4.29%
$494
Apparel
2.47%
$253
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$584
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $316 by
1983, on its way to $584 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $584; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2003: $100 is worth $584 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2003/