$100 in 1957 is worth $106 in 1961,
because prices increased 6.4% over that period, an average of
1.56% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
6.4%
Average inflation rate
1.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$6.41
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1957 → 1961
$106
$100 in 1961 → 1957
$93.98
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1961
Between 1957 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 6.4%, which works out to an average of
1.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.94 buys in 1961: the 1957 dollar
lost 6.0% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,064, and $10,000 becomes $10,641.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.32
$10.00
$10.64
$20.00
$21.28
$50.00
$53.20
$100
$106
$500
$532
$1,000
$1,064
$5,000
$5,320
$10,000
$10,641
$100,000
$106,406
$1,000,000
$1,064,057
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1961
Between 1957 and 1961, medical care rose the most, up 16.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.6%, against 6.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.56%
$106
Medical care
3.83%
$116
Transportation
2.10%
$109
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.77%
$107
Food
1.27%
$105
Energy
1.14%
$105
Apparel
0.89%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.75% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$106
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $104 by
1959, on its way to $106 in 1961; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.8% in 1958, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $106; 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 1957 to 1961: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1961/