$100 in 1916 is worth $297 in 1966,
because prices increased 197.2% over that period, an average of
2.20% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$297
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
197.2%
Average inflation rate
2.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$297
Price difference ($100 base)
$197
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1916 → 1966
$297
$100 in 1966 → 1916
$33.64
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1966
Between 1916 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 197.2%, which works out to an average of
2.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1966: the 1916 dollar
lost 66.4% of its purchasing power over
these 50 years.
1916 was when World War I first showed up clearly in American price tags.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% for the year, easily the sharpest increase since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI history begins in 1913, as factories ran
flat out to fill steel, munitions, and food orders from Britain and France.
Railroad workers felt the squeeze from rising living costs enough to threaten
a nationwide strike; Congress headed it off in September with the Adamson
Act, which set an eight-hour standard workday for interstate rail employees,
the first federal law of its kind covering private-sector hours. Washington
was also preparing more directly for war: the National Defense Act, signed
in June, expanded the Army and National Guard and funded new
government-owned munitions plants, adding another source of demand to an
economy already running hot. Woodrow Wilson won re-election in November
largely on having kept the country out of the fighting so far, a promise
that would not survive the following spring. A first-class stamp still cost
2 cents, one of the few prices that had not yet moved.
Every 1916 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 2.97: $1,000 becomes
$2,972, and $10,000 becomes $29,725.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1966
$1.00
$2.97
$5.00
$14.86
$10.00
$29.72
$20.00
$59.45
$50.00
$149
$100
$297
$500
$1,486
$1,000
$2,972
$5,000
$14,862
$10,000
$29,725
$100,000
$297,248
$1,000,000
$2,972,477
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1966
Between 1916 and 1966, food rose the most, up 199.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.7%, against 197.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.20%
$297
Food
2.22%
$299
Apparel
2.16%
$292
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1916: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1916 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$153
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$128
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$221
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$272
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$297
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $128 by
1940, on its way to $297 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1966
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $297; the year's average CPI of 32.4 is the level
behind every 1966 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.9% in 1966, nearly double 1965’s
1.6% as Vietnam War spending kept climbing without an offsetting tax
increase, pushing the economy closer to capacity and prices higher along
with it. Medicare coverage took effect that July 1, extending federal
health insurance to roughly 19 million Americans age 65 and older under
the program signed into law the year before. The Federal Reserve had
already moved to cool the overheating economy, raising its discount rate
the previous December over White House objections; the tightening carried
into 1966 as the first postwar credit crunch, freezing parts of the
housing and municipal bond markets even as inflation kept climbing. Congress widened
the wage floor’s reach that September 23, when the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1966 set a $1.40 minimum wage effective the following
February and extended coverage to roughly 9 million more workers in
retail, hospitals, schools, and other services not previously covered.
Consumer prices finished 1966 227.3% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
$1.25 an hour for the rest of the year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1966: $100 is worth $297 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1966/