$100 in 1965 is worth $714 in 2011,
because prices increased 614.1% over that period, an average of
4.37% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$714
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
614.1%
Average inflation rate
4.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$714
Price difference ($100 base)
$614
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1965 → 2011
$714
$100 in 2011 → 1965
$14.00
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2011
Between 1965 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 614.1%, which works out to an average of
4.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2011: the 1965 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2011 at the same ratio, 7.14: $1,000 becomes
$7,141, and $10,000 becomes $71,409.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2011
$1.00
$7.14
$5.00
$35.70
$10.00
$71.41
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$357
$100
$714
$500
$3,570
$1,000
$7,141
$5,000
$35,705
$10,000
$71,409
$100,000
$714,092
$1,000,000
$7,140,921
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2011
Between 1965 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 1488.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 155.5%, against 614.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.37%
$714
Medical care
6.20%
$1,588
Energy
5.28%
$1,065
Food
4.35%
$708
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.28%
$688
Transportation
4.21%
$666
Apparel
2.06%
$255
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2011
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 1965–2011 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
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$714
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $361 by
1987, on its way to $714 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $714; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2011: $100 is worth $714 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2011/