$100 in 1940 is worth $231 in 1966,
because prices increased 131.4% over that period, an average of
3.28% a year.
$100 in 1940 has
the same buying power as
$231
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
131.4%
Average inflation rate
3.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$231
Price difference ($100 base)
$131
CPI in 1940
14
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1940 → 1966
$231
$100 in 1966 → 1940
$43.21
What happened to prices between 1940 and 1966
Between 1940 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 14 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 131.4%, which works out to an average of
3.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1940 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1966: the 1940 dollar
lost 56.8% of its purchasing power over
these 26 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Every 1940 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 2.31: $1,000 becomes
$2,314, and $10,000 becomes $23,143.
Amount in 1940
Value in 1966
$1.00
$2.31
$5.00
$11.57
$10.00
$23.14
$20.00
$46.29
$50.00
$116
$100
$231
$500
$1,157
$1,000
$2,314
$5,000
$11,571
$10,000
$23,143
$100,000
$231,429
$1,000,000
$2,314,286
Inflation by spending category, 1940–1966
Between 1940 and 1966, food rose the most, up 181.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 124.8%, against 131.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1940
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1940 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.28%
$231
Food
4.06%
$282
Medical care
3.63%
$253
Transportation
3.21%
$227
Apparel
3.16%
$225
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1940: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1940 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1940–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1940, at end
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$172
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$211
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$231
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1940
$100 from 1940 had already become $191 by
1953, on its way to $231 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 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1940 had the buying
power of $231; 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 1940 to 1966: $100 is worth $231 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1940 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1940-to-1966/