$100 in 1945 is worth $180 in 1966,
because prices increased 80.0% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.0%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.00
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1945 → 1966
$180
$100 in 1966 → 1945
$55.56
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1966
Between 1945 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.0%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1966: the 1945 dollar
lost 44.4% of its purchasing power over
these 21 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1945 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,800, and $10,000 becomes $18,000.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$9.00
$10.00
$18.00
$20.00
$36.00
$50.00
$90.00
$100
$180
$500
$900
$1,000
$1,800
$5,000
$9,000
$10,000
$18,000
$100,000
$180,000
$1,000,000
$1,800,000
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1966
Between 1945 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 121.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.1%, against 80.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$180
Medical care
3.85%
$221
Transportation
3.43%
$203
Food
3.24%
$195
Apparel
2.14%
$156
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1945: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1945 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$164
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $149 by
1955, on its way to $180 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 1945 had the buying
power of $180; 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 1945 to 1966: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1966/