$100 in 1953 is worth $121 in 1966,
because prices increased 21.3% over that period, an average of
1.50% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
21.3%
Average inflation rate
1.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$21.35
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1953 → 1966
$121
$100 in 1966 → 1953
$82.41
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1966
Between 1953 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 21.3%, which works out to an average of
1.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.82 buys in 1966: the 1953 dollar
lost 17.6% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1953 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,213, and $10,000 becomes $12,135.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.07
$10.00
$12.13
$20.00
$24.27
$50.00
$60.67
$100
$121
$500
$607
$1,000
$1,213
$5,000
$6,067
$10,000
$12,135
$100,000
$121,348
$1,000,000
$1,213,483
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1966
Between 1953 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 52.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.7%, against 21.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.50%
$121
Medical care
3.27%
$152
Transportation
1.53%
$122
Food
1.38%
$119
Apparel
0.99%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1953: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1953 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 1.52% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1953, at end
1953–1960
1.48%
10.9%
$111
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $109 by
1959, on its way to $121 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1953 had the buying
power of $121; 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 1953 to 1966: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1966/