$100 in 1966 is worth $583 in 2004,
because prices increased 483.0% over that period, an average of
4.75% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$583
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
483.0%
Average inflation rate
4.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$583
Price difference ($100 base)
$483
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1966 → 2004
$583
$100 in 2004 → 1966
$17.15
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2004
Between 1966 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 483.0%, which works out to an average of
4.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2004: the 1966 dollar
lost 82.8% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2004 at the same ratio, 5.83: $1,000 becomes
$5,830, and $10,000 becomes $58,302.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2004
$1.00
$5.83
$5.00
$29.15
$10.00
$58.30
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$292
$100
$583
$500
$2,915
$1,000
$5,830
$5,000
$29,151
$10,000
$58,302
$100,000
$583,025
$1,000,000
$5,830,247
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2004
Between 1966 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 1079.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.7%, against 483.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.75%
$583
Medical care
6.71%
$1,179
Energy
5.05%
$650
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.77%
$587
Food
4.59%
$551
Transportation
4.35%
$505
Apparel
2.39%
$246
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–2004 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$403
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$531
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$583
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $321 by
1984, on its way to $583 in 2004; 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 1.6% in 1998.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $583; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2004: $100 is worth $583 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2004/