$100 in 1956 is worth $119 in 1966,
because prices increased 19.1% over that period, an average of
1.76% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.1%
Average inflation rate
1.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.12
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1956 → 1966
$119
$100 in 1966 → 1956
$83.95
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1966
Between 1956 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.1%, which works out to an average of
1.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1966: the 1956 dollar
lost 16.0% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,191, and $10,000 becomes $11,912.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.96
$10.00
$11.91
$20.00
$23.82
$50.00
$59.56
$100
$119
$500
$596
$1,000
$1,191
$5,000
$5,956
$10,000
$11,912
$100,000
$119,118
$1,000,000
$1,191,176
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1966
Between 1956 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 39.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.1%, against 19.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.76%
$119
Medical care
3.36%
$139
Transportation
2.12%
$123
Food
1.90%
$121
Apparel
1.15%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1966
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.14% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1966 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1966
1.52%
9.5%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $110 by
1961, on its way to $119 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 1956 had the buying
power of $119; 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 1956 to 1966: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1966/