$100 in 1961 is worth $105 in 1965,
because prices increased 5.4% over that period, an average of
1.31% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$105
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
5.4%
Average inflation rate
1.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$105
Price difference ($100 base)
$5.35
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1961 → 1965
$105
$100 in 1965 → 1961
$94.92
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1965
Between 1961 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 5.4%, which works out to an average of
1.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.95 buys in 1965: the 1961 dollar
lost 5.1% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1965 at the same ratio, 1.05: $1,000 becomes
$1,054, and $10,000 becomes $10,535.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.05
$5.00
$5.27
$10.00
$10.54
$20.00
$21.07
$50.00
$52.68
$100
$105
$500
$527
$1,000
$1,054
$5,000
$5,268
$10,000
$10,535
$100,000
$105,351
$1,000,000
$1,053,512
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1965
Between 1961 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 10.0%, while energy rose the least, up 1.8%, against 5.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.31%
$105
Medical care
2.42%
$110
Transportation
1.46%
$106
Food
1.45%
$106
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.34%
$105
Apparel
0.91%
$104
Energy
0.44%
$102
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 $102 by
1963, on its way to $105 in 1965; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.6% in 1965, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $105; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1965: $100 is worth $105 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1965/