$100 in 1928 is worth $175 in 1961,
because prices increased 74.9% over that period, an average of
1.71% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$175
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
74.9%
Average inflation rate
1.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$175
Price difference ($100 base)
$74.85
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1928 → 1961
$175
$100 in 1961 → 1928
$57.19
What happened to prices between 1928 and 1961
Between 1928 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 74.9%, which works out to an average of
1.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1961: the 1928 dollar
lost 42.8% of its purchasing power over
these 33 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
Every 1928 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 1.75: $1,000 becomes
$1,749, and $10,000 becomes $17,485.
Amount in 1928
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.75
$5.00
$8.74
$10.00
$17.49
$20.00
$34.97
$50.00
$87.43
$100
$175
$500
$874
$1,000
$1,749
$5,000
$8,743
$10,000
$17,485
$100,000
$174,854
$1,000,000
$1,748,538
Inflation by spending category, 1928–1961
Between 1928 and 1961, food rose the most, up 86.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 84.4%, against 74.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.71%
$175
Food
1.91%
$187
Apparel
1.87%
$184
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1928: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1928 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1928–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1928, at end
1928–1930
-1.18%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$175
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $103 by
1944, on its way to $175 in 1961; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1961
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1928 had the buying
power of $175; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1928 to 1961: $100 is worth $175 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1961/