$100 in 1966 is worth $383 in 1989,
because prices increased 282.7% over that period, an average of
6.01% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$383
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
282.7%
Average inflation rate
6.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$383
Price difference ($100 base)
$283
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1966 → 1989
$383
$100 in 1989 → 1966
$26.13
What happened to prices between 1966 and 1989
Between 1966 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 282.7%, which works out to an average of
6.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1989: the 1966 dollar
lost 73.9% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1989 at the same ratio, 3.83: $1,000 becomes
$3,827, and $10,000 becomes $38,272.
Amount in 1966
Value in 1989
$1.00
$3.83
$5.00
$19.14
$10.00
$38.27
$20.00
$76.54
$50.00
$191
$100
$383
$500
$1,914
$1,000
$3,827
$5,000
$19,136
$10,000
$38,272
$100,000
$382,716
$1,000,000
$3,827,160
Inflation by spending category, 1966–1989
Between 1966 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 467.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 142.0%, against 282.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.01%
$383
Medical care
7.84%
$568
Energy
6.27%
$405
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.04%
$385
Food
5.85%
$370
Transportation
5.64%
$353
Apparel
3.92%
$242
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 1989
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (4.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–1989 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1966, at end
1966–1970
4.61%
19.8%
$120
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$254
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$383
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $187 by
1977, on its way to $383 in 1989; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $383; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 1989: $100 is worth $383 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-1989/