$100 in 1920 is worth $162 in 1966,
because prices increased 62.0% over that period, an average of
1.05% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$162
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
62.0%
Average inflation rate
1.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$162
Price difference ($100 base)
$62.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1920 → 1966
$162
$100 in 1966 → 1920
$61.73
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1966
Between 1920 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 62.0%, which works out to an average of
1.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1966: the 1920 dollar
lost 38.3% of its purchasing power over
these 46 years.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1920 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.62: $1,000 becomes
$1,620, and $10,000 becomes $16,200.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.62
$5.00
$8.10
$10.00
$16.20
$20.00
$32.40
$50.00
$81.00
$100
$162
$500
$810
$1,000
$1,620
$5,000
$8,100
$10,000
$16,200
$100,000
$162,000
$1,000,000
$1,620,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1966
Between 1920 and 1966, food rose the most, up 61.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.7%, against 62.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.05%
$162
Food
1.04%
$161
Apparel
0.28%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1920: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1920 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$70.00
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$121
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$148
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$162
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $81.50 by
1942, on its way to $162 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, 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 1920 had the buying
power of $162; 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 1920 to 1966: $100 is worth $162 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1966/