$100 in 1966 is worth $129 in 1972,
because prices increased 29.0% over that period, an average of
4.34% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$129
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
29.0%
Average inflation rate
4.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$129
Price difference ($100 base)
$29.01
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1966 → 1972
$129
$100 in 1972 → 1966
$77.51
What happened to prices between 1966 and 1972
Between 1966 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 29.0%, which works out to an average of
4.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1972: the 1966 dollar
lost 22.5% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
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.
Every 1966 amount converts to 1972 at the same ratio, 1.29: $1,000 becomes
$1,290, and $10,000 becomes $12,901.
Amount in 1966
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.29
$5.00
$6.45
$10.00
$12.90
$20.00
$25.80
$50.00
$64.51
$100
$129
$500
$645
$1,000
$1,290
$5,000
$6,451
$10,000
$12,901
$100,000
$129,012
$1,000,000
$1,290,123
Inflation by spending category, 1966–1972
Between 1966 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 41.8%, while energy rose the least, up 16.7%, against 29.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.34%
$129
Medical care
6.00%
$142
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.65%
$131
Apparel
4.08%
$127
Food
3.73%
$125
Transportation
3.58%
$124
Energy
2.61%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 4.61% a year, and slowest in the 1970s (3.79% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1966, at end
1966–1970
4.61%
19.8%
$120
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $113 by
1969, on its way to $129 in 1972; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 3.1% in 1967.
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $129; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 1972: $100 is worth $129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1972/