$100 in 1945 is worth $166 in 1961,
because prices increased 66.1% over that period, an average of
3.22% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$166
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.1%
Average inflation rate
3.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$166
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.11
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1945 → 1961
$166
$100 in 1961 → 1945
$60.20
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1961
Between 1945 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.1%, which works out to an average of
3.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1961: the 1945 dollar
lost 39.8% of its purchasing power over
these 16 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1945 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 1.66: $1,000 becomes
$1,661, and $10,000 becomes $16,611.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.66
$5.00
$8.31
$10.00
$16.61
$20.00
$33.22
$50.00
$83.06
$100
$166
$500
$831
$1,000
$1,661
$5,000
$8,306
$10,000
$16,611
$100,000
$166,111
$1,000,000
$1,661,111
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1961
Between 1945 and 1961, medical care rose the most, up 92.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.8%, against 66.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.22%
$166
Medical care
4.18%
$192
Transportation
4.07%
$189
Food
3.59%
$176
Apparel
2.43%
$147
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1945: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1945 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1945–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$164
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$166
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $148 by
1953, on its way to $166 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 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1945 had the buying
power of $166; 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 1945 to 1961: $100 is worth $166 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1961/