$100 in 1961 is worth $140 in 1972,
because prices increased 39.8% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$140
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.8%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$140
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.80
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1961 → 1972
$140
$100 in 1972 → 1961
$71.53
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1972
Between 1961 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.8%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1972: the 1961 dollar
lost 28.5% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1972 at the same ratio, 1.40: $1,000 becomes
$1,398, and $10,000 becomes $13,980.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1972
$1.00
$1.40
$5.00
$6.99
$10.00
$13.98
$20.00
$27.96
$50.00
$69.90
$100
$140
$500
$699
$1,000
$1,398
$5,000
$6,990
$10,000
$13,980
$100,000
$139,799
$1,000,000
$1,397,993
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1972
Between 1961 and 1972, medical care rose the most, up 62.9%, while energy rose the least, up 20.9%, against 39.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$140
Medical care
4.53%
$163
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.23%
$142
Food
3.00%
$138
Apparel
2.78%
$135
Transportation
2.60%
$133
Energy
1.74%
$121
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1972
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 3.79% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1972 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$140
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $108 by
1966, on its way to $140 in 1972; 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 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $140; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1972: $100 is worth $140 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1972/