$100 in 1961 is worth $116 in 1968,
because prices increased 16.4% over that period, an average of
2.19% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$116
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.4%
Average inflation rate
2.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$116
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.39
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1961 → 1968
$116
$100 in 1968 → 1961
$85.92
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1968
Between 1961 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.4%, which works out to an average of
2.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1968: the 1961 dollar
lost 14.1% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1968 at the same ratio, 1.16: $1,000 becomes
$1,164, and $10,000 becomes $11,639.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.16
$5.00
$5.82
$10.00
$11.64
$20.00
$23.28
$50.00
$58.19
$100
$116
$500
$582
$1,000
$1,164
$5,000
$5,819
$10,000
$11,639
$100,000
$116,388
$1,000,000
$1,163,880
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1968
Between 1961 and 1968, medical care rose the most, up 30.6%, while energy rose the least, up 7.6%, against 16.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.19%
$116
Medical care
3.88%
$131
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.28%
$117
Apparel
2.20%
$116
Food
2.16%
$116
Transportation
1.88%
$114
Energy
1.05%
$108
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 $104 by
1964, on its way to $116 in 1968; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.2% in 1968, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $116; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1968: $100 is worth $116 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1968/