$100 in 1966 is worth $224 in 1979,
because prices increased 124.1% over that period, an average of
6.40% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$224
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
124.1%
Average inflation rate
6.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$224
Price difference ($100 base)
$124
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1966 → 1979
$224
$100 in 1979 → 1966
$44.63
What happened to prices between 1966 and 1979
Between 1966 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 124.1%, which works out to an average of
6.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1979: the 1966 dollar
lost 55.4% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1979 at the same ratio, 2.24: $1,000 becomes
$2,241, and $10,000 becomes $22,407.
Amount in 1966
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.24
$5.00
$11.20
$10.00
$22.41
$20.00
$44.81
$50.00
$112
$100
$224
$500
$1,120
$1,000
$2,241
$5,000
$11,204
$10,000
$22,407
$100,000
$224,074
$1,000,000
$2,240,741
Inflation by spending category, 1966–1979
Between 1966 and 1979, energy rose the most, up 182.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.3%, against 124.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.40%
$224
Energy
8.30%
$282
Medical care
7.52%
$257
Food
6.84%
$236
Transportation
6.19%
$218
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.05%
$215
Apparel
4.32%
$173
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1966, at end
1966–1970
4.61%
19.8%
$120
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$224
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $129 by
1972, on its way to $224 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and the smallest rise was 3.1% in 1967.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $224; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 1979: $100 is worth $224 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1979/