$100 in 1965 is worth $620 in 2005,
because prices increased 520.0% over that period, an average of
4.67% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$620
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
520.0%
Average inflation rate
4.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$620
Price difference ($100 base)
$520
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1965 → 2005
$620
$100 in 2005 → 1965
$16.13
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2005
Between 1965 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 520.0%, which works out to an average of
4.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2005: the 1965 dollar
lost 83.9% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2005 at the same ratio, 6.20: $1,000 becomes
$6,200, and $10,000 becomes $62,000.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2005
$1.00
$6.20
$5.00
$31.00
$10.00
$62.00
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$310
$100
$620
$500
$3,100
$1,000
$6,200
$5,000
$31,000
$10,000
$62,000
$100,000
$620,000
$1,000,000
$6,200,000
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2005
Between 1965 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1182.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 150.0%, against 520.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.67%
$620
Medical care
6.59%
$1,283
Energy
5.25%
$773
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.64%
$614
Food
4.55%
$592
Transportation
4.33%
$545
Apparel
2.32%
$250
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$620
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $342 by
1985, on its way to $620 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $620; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2005: $100 is worth $620 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2005/