$100 in 1933 is worth $230 in 1961,
because prices increased 130.0% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$230
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
130.0%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$230
Price difference ($100 base)
$130
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1933 → 1961
$230
$100 in 1961 → 1933
$43.48
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1961
Between 1933 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 130.0%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1961: the 1933 dollar
lost 56.5% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 2.30: $1,000 becomes
$2,300, and $10,000 becomes $23,000.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1961
$1.00
$2.30
$5.00
$11.50
$10.00
$23.00
$20.00
$46.00
$50.00
$115
$100
$230
$500
$1,150
$1,000
$2,300
$5,000
$11,500
$10,000
$23,000
$100,000
$230,000
$1,000,000
$2,300,000
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1961
Between 1933 and 1961, food rose the most, up 192.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.2%, against 130.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$230
Food
3.91%
$292
Apparel
3.26%
$245
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$230
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $172 by
1947, on its way to $230 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $230; 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 1933 to 1961: $100 is worth $230 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1961/