$100 in 1966 is worth $799 in 2020,
because prices increased 698.8% over that period, an average of
3.92% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$799
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
698.8%
Average inflation rate
3.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$799
Price difference ($100 base)
$699
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1966 → 2020
$799
$100 in 2020 → 1966
$12.52
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2020
Between 1966 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 698.8%, which works out to an average of
3.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2020: the 1966 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2020 at the same ratio, 7.99: $1,000 becomes
$7,988, and $10,000 becomes $79,880.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2020
$1.00
$7.99
$5.00
$39.94
$10.00
$79.88
$20.00
$160
$50.00
$399
$100
$799
$500
$3,994
$1,000
$7,988
$5,000
$39,940
$10,000
$79,880
$100,000
$798,799
$1,000,000
$7,987,994
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2020
Between 1966 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 1872.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 141.0%, against 698.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.92%
$799
Medical care
5.68%
$1,973
Energy
4.03%
$845
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.92%
$799
Food
3.90%
$791
Transportation
3.45%
$623
Apparel
1.64%
$241
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1966–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$799
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $433 by
1992, on its way to $799 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $799; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2020: $100 is worth $799 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2020/