$100 in 1944 is worth $184 in 1966,
because prices increased 84.1% over that period, an average of
2.81% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$184
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.1%
Average inflation rate
2.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$184
Price difference ($100 base)
$84.09
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1944 → 1966
$184
$100 in 1966 → 1944
$54.32
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1966
Between 1944 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.1%, which works out to an average of
2.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1966: the 1944 dollar
lost 45.7% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1944 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.84: $1,000 becomes
$1,841, and $10,000 becomes $18,409.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.84
$5.00
$9.20
$10.00
$18.41
$20.00
$36.82
$50.00
$92.05
$100
$184
$500
$920
$1,000
$1,841
$5,000
$9,205
$10,000
$18,409
$100,000
$184,091
$1,000,000
$1,840,909
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1966
Between 1944 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 126.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.4%, against 84.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.81%
$184
Medical care
3.79%
$227
Transportation
3.27%
$203
Food
3.20%
$200
Apparel
2.29%
$164
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1944: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1944 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$168
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $152 by
1955, on its way to $184 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 1944 had the buying
power of $184; 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 1944 to 1966: $100 is worth $184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1966/