$100 in 1961 is worth $135 in 1971,
because prices increased 35.5% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.5%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.45
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1961 → 1971
$135
$100 in 1971 → 1961
$73.83
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1971
Between 1961 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.5%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1971: the 1961 dollar
lost 26.2% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,355, and $10,000 becomes $13,545.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.77
$10.00
$13.55
$20.00
$27.09
$50.00
$67.73
$100
$135
$500
$677
$1,000
$1,355
$5,000
$6,773
$10,000
$13,545
$100,000
$135,452
$1,000,000
$1,354,515
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1971
Between 1961 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 57.6%, while energy rose the least, up 17.8%, against 35.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$135
Medical care
4.66%
$158
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.25%
$138
Food
2.88%
$133
Apparel
2.86%
$133
Transportation
2.76%
$131
Energy
1.65%
$118
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $108 by
1966, on its way to $135 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1971: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1971/