$100 in 1946 is worth $153 in 1961,
because prices increased 53.3% over that period, an average of
2.89% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$153
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
53.3%
Average inflation rate
2.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$153
Price difference ($100 base)
$53.33
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1946 → 1961
$153
$100 in 1961 → 1946
$65.22
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1961
Between 1946 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 53.3%, which works out to an average of
2.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1961: the 1946 dollar
lost 34.8% of its purchasing power over
these 15 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1946 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 1.53: $1,000 becomes
$1,533, and $10,000 becomes $15,333.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.53
$5.00
$7.67
$10.00
$15.33
$20.00
$30.67
$50.00
$76.67
$100
$153
$500
$767
$1,000
$1,533
$5,000
$7,667
$10,000
$15,333
$100,000
$153,333
$1,000,000
$1,533,333
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1961
Between 1946 and 1961, medical care rose the most, up 83.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 34.0%, against 53.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.89%
$153
Medical care
4.12%
$183
Transportation
4.01%
$180
Food
2.90%
$154
Apparel
1.97%
$134
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1946: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1946 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.44% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$152
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$153
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $137 by
1953, on its way to $153 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 1946 had the buying
power of $153; 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 1946 to 1961: $100 is worth $153 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1961/