$100 in 1965 is worth $729 in 2012,
because prices increased 628.9% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$729
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
628.9%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$729
Price difference ($100 base)
$629
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1965 → 2012
$729
$100 in 2012 → 1965
$13.72
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2012
Between 1965 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 628.9%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2012: the 1965 dollar
lost 86.3% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2012 at the same ratio, 7.29: $1,000 becomes
$7,289, and $10,000 becomes $72,887.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2012
$1.00
$7.29
$5.00
$36.44
$10.00
$72.89
$20.00
$146
$50.00
$364
$100
$729
$500
$3,644
$1,000
$7,289
$5,000
$36,443
$10,000
$72,887
$100,000
$728,870
$1,000,000
$7,288,698
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2012
Between 1965 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 1546.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 164.2%, against 628.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$729
Medical care
6.14%
$1,647
Energy
5.18%
$1,075
Food
4.31%
$726
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.24%
$703
Transportation
4.17%
$681
Apparel
2.09%
$264
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2012
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 1965–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$729
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $394 by
1989, on its way to $729 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $729; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2012: $100 is worth $729 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2012/