$100 in 1966 is worth $694 in 2011,
because prices increased 594.3% over that period, an average of
4.40% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$694
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
594.3%
Average inflation rate
4.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$694
Price difference ($100 base)
$594
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1966 → 2011
$694
$100 in 2011 → 1966
$14.40
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2011
Between 1966 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 594.3%, which works out to an average of
4.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2011: the 1966 dollar
lost 85.6% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2011 at the same ratio, 6.94: $1,000 becomes
$6,943, and $10,000 becomes $69,426.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2011
$1.00
$6.94
$5.00
$34.71
$10.00
$69.43
$20.00
$139
$50.00
$347
$100
$694
$500
$3,471
$1,000
$6,943
$5,000
$34,713
$10,000
$69,426
$100,000
$694,256
$1,000,000
$6,942,562
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2011
Between 1966 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 1421.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 149.2%, against 594.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.40%
$694
Medical care
6.24%
$1,522
Energy
5.36%
$1,047
Food
4.33%
$674
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.32%
$672
Transportation
4.27%
$657
Apparel
2.05%
$249
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$673
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$694
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $365 by
1988, on its way to $694 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $694; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2011: $100 is worth $694 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2011/