$100 in 1919 is worth $187 in 1966,
because prices increased 87.3% over that period, an average of
1.34% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$187
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.3%
Average inflation rate
1.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$187
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.28
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1919 → 1966
$187
$100 in 1966 → 1919
$53.40
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1966
Between 1919 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.3%, which works out to an average of
1.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1966: the 1919 dollar
lost 46.6% of its purchasing power over
these 47 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.87: $1,000 becomes
$1,873, and $10,000 becomes $18,728.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.87
$5.00
$9.36
$10.00
$18.73
$20.00
$37.46
$50.00
$93.64
$100
$187
$500
$936
$1,000
$1,873
$5,000
$9,364
$10,000
$18,728
$100,000
$187,283
$1,000,000
$1,872,832
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1966
Between 1919 and 1966, food rose the most, up 81.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 35.4%, against 87.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.34%
$187
Food
1.28%
$182
Apparel
0.65%
$135
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$187
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $100 by
1943, on its way to $187 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, 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 1919 had the buying
power of $187; 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 1919 to 1966: $100 is worth $187 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1966/