$100 in 1965 is worth $778 in 2017,
because prices increased 678.2% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$778
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
678.2%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$778
Price difference ($100 base)
$678
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1965 → 2017
$778
$100 in 2017 → 1965
$12.85
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2017
Between 1965 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 678.2%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2017: the 1965 dollar
lost 87.1% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2017 at the same ratio, 7.78: $1,000 becomes
$7,782, and $10,000 becomes $77,816.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2017
$1.00
$7.78
$5.00
$38.91
$10.00
$77.82
$20.00
$156
$50.00
$389
$100
$778
$500
$3,891
$1,000
$7,782
$5,000
$38,908
$10,000
$77,816
$100,000
$778,159
$1,000,000
$7,781,587
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2017
Between 1965 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 1786.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 162.8%, against 678.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$778
Medical care
5.81%
$1,886
Energy
4.30%
$893
Food
4.02%
$777
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.01%
$771
Transportation
3.61%
$632
Apparel
1.88%
$263
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$778
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $432 by
1991, on its way to $778 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $778; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2017: $100 is worth $778 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2017/