$100 in 1955 is worth $121 in 1966,
because prices increased 20.9% over that period, an average of
1.74% a year.
$100 in 1955 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.9%
Average inflation rate
1.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.90
CPI in 1955
26.8
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1955 → 1966
$121
$100 in 1966 → 1955
$82.72
What happened to prices between 1955 and 1966
Between 1955 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.8 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.9%, which works out to an average of
1.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1955 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1966: the 1955 dollar
lost 17.3% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1955 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,209, and $10,000 becomes $12,090.
Amount in 1955
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.04
$10.00
$12.09
$20.00
$24.18
$50.00
$60.45
$100
$121
$500
$604
$1,000
$1,209
$5,000
$6,045
$10,000
$12,090
$100,000
$120,896
$1,000,000
$1,208,955
Inflation by spending category, 1955–1966
Between 1955 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 44.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 14.2%, against 20.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1955
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1955 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.74%
$121
Medical care
3.40%
$145
Transportation
2.06%
$125
Food
1.79%
$122
Apparel
1.22%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1955: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1955 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1955–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1955, at end
1955–1960
2.01%
10.4%
$110
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1955
$100 from 1955 had already become $110 by
1960, 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1955 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 1955 to 1966: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1955 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1955-to-1966/