$100 in 1965 is worth $681 in 2009,
because prices increased 581.1% over that period, an average of
4.46% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$681
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
581.1%
Average inflation rate
4.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$681
Price difference ($100 base)
$581
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1965 → 2009
$681
$100 in 2009 → 1965
$14.68
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2009
Between 1965 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 581.1%, which works out to an average of
4.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2009: the 1965 dollar
lost 85.3% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 2009 at the same ratio, 6.81: $1,000 becomes
$6,811, and $10,000 becomes $68,107.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2009
$1.00
$6.81
$5.00
$34.05
$10.00
$68.11
$20.00
$136
$50.00
$341
$100
$681
$500
$3,405
$1,000
$6,811
$5,000
$34,053
$10,000
$68,107
$100,000
$681,070
$1,000,000
$6,810,698
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2009
Between 1965 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 1390.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 151.2%, against 581.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.46%
$681
Medical care
6.33%
$1,491
Energy
4.97%
$843
Food
4.44%
$677
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.42%
$670
Transportation
4.00%
$562
Apparel
2.12%
$251
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$681
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $361 by
1987, on its way to $681 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $681; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2009: $100 is worth $681 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2009/