$100 in 1966 is worth $201 in 1978,
because prices increased 101.2% over that period, an average of
6.00% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$201
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
101.2%
Average inflation rate
6.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$201
Price difference ($100 base)
$101
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1966 → 1978
$201
$100 in 1978 → 1966
$49.69
What happened to prices between 1966 and 1978
Between 1966 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 101.2%, which works out to an average of
6.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1978: the 1966 dollar
lost 50.3% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1978 at the same ratio, 2.01: $1,000 becomes
$2,012, and $10,000 becomes $20,123.
Amount in 1966
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.01
$5.00
$10.06
$10.00
$20.12
$20.00
$40.25
$50.00
$101
$100
$201
$500
$1,006
$1,000
$2,012
$5,000
$10,062
$10,000
$20,123
$100,000
$201,235
$1,000,000
$2,012,346
Inflation by spending category, 1966–1978
Between 1966 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 135.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 66.1%, against 101.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.00%
$201
Medical care
7.38%
$235
Energy
7.00%
$225
Food
6.50%
$213
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.75%
$196
Transportation
5.54%
$191
Apparel
4.32%
$166
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1966, at end
1966–1970
4.61%
19.8%
$120
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$201
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $129 by
1972, on its way to $201 in 1978; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 3.1% in 1967.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $201; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 1978: $100 is worth $201 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1978/