$100 in 1965 is worth $692 in 2010,
because prices increased 592.2% over that period, an average of
4.39% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$692
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
592.2%
Average inflation rate
4.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$692
Price difference ($100 base)
$592
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1965 → 2010
$692
$100 in 2010 → 1965
$14.45
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2010
Between 1965 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 592.2%, which works out to an average of
4.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2010: the 1965 dollar
lost 85.6% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2010 at the same ratio, 6.92: $1,000 becomes
$6,922, and $10,000 becomes $69,224.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2010
$1.00
$6.92
$5.00
$34.61
$10.00
$69.22
$20.00
$138
$50.00
$346
$100
$692
$500
$3,461
$1,000
$6,922
$5,000
$34,612
$10,000
$69,224
$100,000
$692,241
$1,000,000
$6,922,413
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2010
Between 1965 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1441.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 150.0%, against 592.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.39%
$692
Medical care
6.27%
$1,541
Energy
5.06%
$923
Food
4.36%
$682
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.34%
$677
Transportation
4.09%
$606
Apparel
2.06%
$250
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$692
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $361 by
1987, on its way to $692 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $692; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2010: $100 is worth $692 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2010/