$100 in 1960 is worth $109 in 1966,
because prices increased 9.5% over that period, an average of
1.52% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
9.5%
Average inflation rate
1.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$9.46
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1960 → 1966
$109
$100 in 1966 → 1960
$91.36
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1966
Between 1960 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 9.5%, which works out to an average of
1.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1966: the 1960 dollar
lost 8.6% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1960 amount converts to 1966 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,095, and $10,000 becomes $10,946.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.09
$5.00
$5.47
$10.00
$10.95
$20.00
$21.89
$50.00
$54.73
$100
$109
$500
$547
$1,000
$1,095
$5,000
$5,473
$10,000
$10,946
$100,000
$109,459
$1,000,000
$1,094,595
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1966
Between 1960 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 17.9%, while energy rose the least, up 4.0%, against 9.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.52%
$109
Medical care
2.79%
$118
Food
2.01%
$113
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.52%
$109
Transportation
1.35%
$108
Apparel
1.17%
$107
Energy
0.66%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $103 by
1963, on its way to $109 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.9% in 1966, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $109; 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 1960 to 1966: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1966/