$100 in 1951 is worth $115 in 1961,
because prices increased 15.0% over that period, an average of
1.41% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$115
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
15.0%
Average inflation rate
1.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$115
Price difference ($100 base)
$15.00
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1951 → 1961
$115
$100 in 1961 → 1951
$86.96
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1961
Between 1951 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 15.0%, which works out to an average of
1.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.87 buys in 1961: the 1951 dollar
lost 13.0% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 1.15: $1,000 becomes
$1,150, and $10,000 becomes $11,500.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.15
$5.00
$5.75
$10.00
$11.50
$20.00
$23.00
$50.00
$57.50
$100
$115
$500
$575
$1,000
$1,150
$5,000
$5,750
$10,000
$11,500
$100,000
$115,000
$1,000,000
$1,150,000
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1961
Between 1951 and 1961, medical care rose the most, up 44.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 5.0%, against 15.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.41%
$115
Medical care
3.72%
$144
Transportation
2.25%
$125
Food
0.75%
$108
Apparel
0.49%
$105
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.45% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$115
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $105 by
1956, on its way to $115 in 1961; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $115; 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 1951 to 1961: $100 is worth $115 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1961/