$100 in 1933 is worth $249 in 1966,
because prices increased 149.2% over that period, an average of
2.81% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$249
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
149.2%
Average inflation rate
2.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$249
Price difference ($100 base)
$149
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1933 → 1966
$249
$100 in 1966 → 1933
$40.12
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1966
Between 1933 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 149.2%, which works out to an average of
2.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1966: the 1933 dollar
lost 59.9% of its purchasing power over
these 33 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 2.49: $1,000 becomes
$2,492, and $10,000 becomes $24,923.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1966
$1.00
$2.49
$5.00
$12.46
$10.00
$24.92
$20.00
$49.85
$50.00
$125
$100
$249
$500
$1,246
$1,000
$2,492
$5,000
$12,462
$10,000
$24,923
$100,000
$249,231
$1,000,000
$2,492,308
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1966
Between 1933 and 1966, food rose the most, up 225.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 160.6%, against 149.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.81%
$249
Food
3.64%
$325
Apparel
2.95%
$261
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$249
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $183 by
1949, on its way to $249 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $249; 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 1933 to 1966: $100 is worth $249 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1966/