$100 in 1966 is worth $836 in 2021,
because prices increased 736.3% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$836
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
736.3%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$836
Price difference ($100 base)
$736
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1966 → 2021
$836
$100 in 2021 → 1966
$11.96
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2021
Between 1966 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 736.3%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2021: the 1966 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2021 at the same ratio, 8.36: $1,000 becomes
$8,363, and $10,000 becomes $83,633.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2021
$1.00
$8.36
$5.00
$41.82
$10.00
$83.63
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$418
$100
$836
$500
$4,182
$1,000
$8,363
$5,000
$41,816
$10,000
$83,633
$100,000
$836,327
$1,000,000
$8,363,272
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2021
Between 1966 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 1897.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 146.9%, against 736.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$836
Medical care
5.60%
$1,997
Energy
4.32%
$1,023
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.92%
$828
Food
3.90%
$822
Transportation
3.64%
$714
Apparel
1.66%
$247
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2021
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 1966–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$836
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $457 by
1994, on its way to $836 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $836; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2021: $100 is worth $836 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2021/