$100 in 1961 is worth $102 in 1963,
because prices increased 2.3% over that period, an average of
1.16% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.3%
Average inflation rate
1.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.34
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1961 → 1963
$102
$100 in 1963 → 1961
$97.71
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1963
Between 1961 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.3%, which works out to an average of
1.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.98 buys in 1963: the 1961 dollar
lost 2.3% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
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.
Every 1961 amount converts to 1963 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,023, and $10,000 becomes $10,234.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1963
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.12
$10.00
$10.23
$20.00
$20.47
$50.00
$51.17
$100
$102
$500
$512
$1,000
$1,023
$5,000
$5,117
$10,000
$10,234
$100,000
$102,341
$1,000,000
$1,023,411
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1963
Between 1961 and 1963, medical care rose the most, up 5.2%, while energy rose the least, up 0.4%, against 2.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.16%
$102
Medical care
2.59%
$105
Transportation
1.32%
$103
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.28%
$103
Food
1.14%
$102
Apparel
0.86%
$102
Energy
0.22%
$100
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $101 by
1962, on its way to $102 in 1963; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.3% in 1963, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $102; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1963: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1963/