$100 in 1958 is worth $103 in 1961,
because prices increased 3.5% over that period, an average of
1.14% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
3.5%
Average inflation rate
1.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$3.46
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1958 → 1961
$103
$100 in 1961 → 1958
$96.66
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1961
Between 1958 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 3.5%, which works out to an average of
1.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1961: the 1958 dollar
lost 3.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1961 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,035, and $10,000 becomes $10,346.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.17
$10.00
$10.35
$20.00
$20.69
$50.00
$51.73
$100
$103
$500
$517
$1,000
$1,035
$5,000
$5,173
$10,000
$10,346
$100,000
$103,460
$1,000,000
$1,034,602
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1961
Between 1958 and 1961, medical care rose the most, up 11.2%, while food rose the least, up 0.7%, against 3.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.14%
$103
Medical care
3.59%
$111
Transportation
1.72%
$105
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.55%
$105
Energy
1.53%
$105
Apparel
1.11%
$103
Food
0.22%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1961
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.20% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1961 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$103
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $101 by
1959, on its way to $103 in 1961; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.7% in 1960, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $103; 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 1958 to 1961: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1961/