$100 in 1966 is worth $603 in 2005,
because prices increased 502.8% over that period, an average of
4.71% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$603
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
502.8%
Average inflation rate
4.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$603
Price difference ($100 base)
$503
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1966 → 2005
$603
$100 in 2005 → 1966
$16.59
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2005
Between 1966 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 502.8%, which works out to an average of
4.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2005: the 1966 dollar
lost 83.4% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2005 at the same ratio, 6.03: $1,000 becomes
$6,028, and $10,000 becomes $60,278.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2005
$1.00
$6.03
$5.00
$30.14
$10.00
$60.28
$20.00
$121
$50.00
$301
$100
$603
$500
$3,014
$1,000
$6,028
$5,000
$30,139
$10,000
$60,278
$100,000
$602,778
$1,000,000
$6,027,778
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2005
Between 1966 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1128.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.9%, against 502.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.71%
$603
Medical care
6.64%
$1,229
Energy
5.34%
$760
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.70%
$600
Food
4.54%
$564
Transportation
4.41%
$538
Apparel
2.31%
$244
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$603
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $338 by
1986, on its way to $603 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $603; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2005: $100 is worth $603 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2005/