$100 in 1961 is worth $108 in 1966,
because prices increased 8.4% over that period, an average of
1.62% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1966
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.4%
Average inflation rate
1.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.36
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1966
32.4
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1966
2.86%
$100 in 1961 → 1966
$108
$100 in 1966 → 1961
$92.28
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1966
Between 1961 and 1966, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 32.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.4%, which works out to an average of
1.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.92 buys in 1966: the 1961 dollar
lost 7.7% of its purchasing power over
these 5 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 1966 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,084, and $10,000 becomes $10,836.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1966
$1.00
$1.08
$5.00
$5.42
$10.00
$10.84
$20.00
$21.67
$50.00
$54.18
$100
$108
$500
$542
$1,000
$1,084
$5,000
$5,418
$10,000
$10,836
$100,000
$108,361
$1,000,000
$1,083,612
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1966
Between 1961 and 1966, medical care rose the most, up 14.8%, while energy rose the least, up 3.6%, against 8.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1966, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.62%
$108
Medical care
2.81%
$115
Food
2.14%
$111
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.56%
$108
Transportation
1.42%
$107
Apparel
1.23%
$106
Energy
0.70%
$104
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 $108 in 1966; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.9% in 1966, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1966, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $108; the year's average CPI of 32.4 is the level
behind every 1966 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.9% in 1966, nearly double 1965’s
1.6% as Vietnam War spending kept climbing without an offsetting tax
increase, pushing the economy closer to capacity and prices higher along
with it. Medicare coverage took effect that July 1, extending federal
health insurance to roughly 19 million Americans age 65 and older under
the program signed into law the year before. The Federal Reserve had
already moved to cool the overheating economy, raising its discount rate
the previous December over White House objections; the tightening carried
into 1966 as the first postwar credit crunch, freezing parts of the
housing and municipal bond markets even as inflation kept climbing. Congress widened
the wage floor’s reach that September 23, when the Fair Labor Standards
Amendments of 1966 set a $1.40 minimum wage effective the following
February and extended coverage to roughly 9 million more workers in
retail, hospitals, schools, and other services not previously covered.
Consumer prices finished 1966 227.3% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
$1.25 an hour for the rest of the year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1966: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1966/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1966. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1966/