$100 in 1965 is worth $967 in 2023,
because prices increased 867.3% over that period, an average of
3.99% a year.
$100 in 1965 has
the same buying power as
$967
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
867.3%
Average inflation rate
3.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$967
Price difference ($100 base)
$867
CPI in 1965
31.5
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1965 → 2023
$967
$100 in 2023 → 1965
$10.34
What happened to prices between 1965 and 2023
Between 1965 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 31.5 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 867.3%, which works out to an average of
3.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1965 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2023: the 1965 dollar
lost 89.7% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 2023 at the same ratio, 9.67: $1,000 becomes
$9,673, and $10,000 becomes $96,731.
Amount in 1965
Value in 2023
$1.00
$9.67
$5.00
$48.37
$10.00
$96.73
$20.00
$193
$50.00
$484
$100
$967
$500
$4,837
$1,000
$9,673
$5,000
$48,365
$10,000
$96,731
$100,000
$967,308
$1,000,000
$9,673,079
Inflation by spending category, 1965–2023
Between 1965 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 2078.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 173.2%, against 867.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1965
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1965 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.99%
$967
Medical care
5.46%
$2,179
Energy
4.43%
$1,237
Food
4.06%
$1,003
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.94%
$943
Transportation
3.73%
$837
Apparel
1.75%
$273
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1965: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1965 to 2023
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 1965–2023 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
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$967
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1965
$100 from 1965 had already become $459 by
1993, on its way to $967 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1965 had the buying
power of $967; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1965 to 2023: $100 is worth $967 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1965 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1965-to-2023/