$100 in 1965 is worth $929 in 2022,
because prices increased 829.1% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$929
in 2022
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
829.1%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$929
Price difference ($100 base)
$829
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2022
292.655
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2022
8.00%
$100 in 1965 → 2022
$929
$100 in 2022 → 1965
$10.76
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2022
Between 1965 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 829.1%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2022: the 1965 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2022 at the same ratio, 9.29: $1,000 becomes
$9,291, and $10,000 becomes $92,906.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2022
$1.00
$9.29
$5.00
$46.45
$10.00
$92.91
$20.00
$186
$50.00
$465
$100
$929
$500
$4,645
$1,000
$9,291
$5,000
$46,453
$10,000
$92,906
$100,000
$929,063
$1,000,000
$9,290,635
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2022
Between 1965 and 2022, medical care rose the most, up 2068.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.9%, against 829.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$929
Medical care
5.55%
$2,169
Energy
4.61%
$1,302
Food
4.03%
$948
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.93%
$900
Transportation
3.79%
$835
Apparel
1.73%
$266
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2022
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1965–2022 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$822
2020–2022
6.34%
13.1%
$929
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $459 by
1993, on its way to $929 in 2022; 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: 2022
In 2022, prices rose 8.0% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $929; the year's average CPI of 292.655 is the level
behind every 2022 figure on this page.
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2022: $100 is worth $929 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2022/