$100 in 1934 is worth $223 in 1961,
because prices increased 123.1% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$223
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
123.1%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$223
Price difference ($100 base)
$123
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1934 → 1961
$223
$100 in 1961 → 1934
$44.82
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1961
Between 1934 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 123.1%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1961: the 1934 dollar
lost 55.2% of its purchasing power over
these 27 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 2.23: $1,000 becomes
$2,231, and $10,000 becomes $22,313.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1961
$1.00
$2.23
$5.00
$11.16
$10.00
$22.31
$20.00
$44.63
$50.00
$112
$100
$223
$500
$1,116
$1,000
$2,231
$5,000
$11,157
$10,000
$22,313
$100,000
$223,134
$1,000,000
$2,231,343
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1961
Between 1934 and 1961, food rose the most, up 162.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 123.8%, against 123.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$223
Food
3.63%
$262
Apparel
3.03%
$224
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$223
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $166 by
1947, on its way to $223 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 1934 had the buying
power of $223; 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 1934 to 1961: $100 is worth $223 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1961/