$100 in 1923 is worth $189 in 1966,
because prices increased 89.5% over that period, an average of
1.50% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$189
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
89.5%
Average inflation rate
1.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$189
Price difference ($100 base)
$89.47
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1923 → 1966
$189
$100 in 1966 → 1923
$52.78
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1966
Between 1923 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 89.5%, which works out to an average of
1.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1966: the 1923 dollar
lost 47.2% of its purchasing power over
these 43 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.89: $1,000 becomes
$1,895, and $10,000 becomes $18,947.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.89
$5.00
$9.47
$10.00
$18.95
$20.00
$37.89
$50.00
$94.74
$100
$189
$500
$947
$1,000
$1,895
$5,000
$9,474
$10,000
$18,947
$100,000
$189,474
$1,000,000
$1,894,737
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1966
Between 1923 and 1966, food rose the most, up 119.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 80.8%, against 89.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.50%
$189
Food
1.84%
$219
Apparel
1.39%
$181
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$189
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $105 by
1945, on its way to $189 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 9.9% in 1932, 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 1923 had the buying
power of $189; 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 1923 to 1966: $100 is worth $189 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1966/