$100 in 1966 is worth $940 in 2023,
because prices increased 840.4% over that period, an average of
4.01% a year.
$100 in 1966 has
the same buying power as
$940
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
840.4%
Average inflation rate
4.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$940
Price difference ($100 base)
$840
CPI in 1966
32.4
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1966 → 2023
$940
$100 in 2023 → 1966
$10.63
What happened to prices between 1966 and 2023
Between 1966 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 32.4 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 840.4%, which works out to an average of
4.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1966 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2023: the 1966 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2023 at the same ratio, 9.40: $1,000 becomes
$9,404, and $10,000 becomes $94,044.
Amount in 1966
Value in 2023
$1.00
$9.40
$5.00
$47.02
$10.00
$94.04
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$470
$100
$940
$500
$4,702
$1,000
$9,404
$5,000
$47,022
$10,000
$94,044
$100,000
$940,438
$1,000,000
$9,404,383
Inflation by spending category, 1966–2023
Between 1966 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 1987.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 166.5%, against 840.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1966
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1966 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.01%
$940
Medical care
5.48%
$2,088
Energy
4.48%
$1,216
Food
4.04%
$956
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.97%
$921
Transportation
3.77%
$827
Apparel
1.73%
$266
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1966: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1966 to 2023
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 1966–2023 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
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$940
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1966
$100 from 1966 had already become $457 by
1994, on its way to $940 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1966 had the buying
power of $940; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1966 to 2023: $100 is worth $940 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1966 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1966-to-2023/