$100 in 1966 is worth $662 in 2009,
because prices increased 562.2% over that period, an average of
4.49% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$662
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
562.2%
Average inflation rate
4.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$662
Price difference ($100 base)
$562
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1966 → 2009
$662
$100 in 2009 → 1966
$15.10
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2009
Between 1966 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 562.2%, which works out to an average of
4.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2009: the 1966 dollar
lost 84.9% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2009 at the same ratio, 6.62: $1,000 becomes
$6,622, and $10,000 becomes $66,215.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2009
$1.00
$6.62
$5.00
$33.11
$10.00
$66.22
$20.00
$132
$50.00
$331
$100
$662
$500
$3,311
$1,000
$6,622
$5,000
$33,108
$10,000
$66,215
$100,000
$662,151
$1,000,000
$6,621,512
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2009
Between 1966 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 1328.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.1%, against 562.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.49%
$662
Medical care
6.38%
$1,428
Energy
5.04%
$829
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.47%
$654
Food
4.43%
$645
Transportation
4.07%
$555
Apparel
2.11%
$245
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$662
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $365 by
1988, on its way to $662 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $662; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2009: $100 is worth $662 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2009/