$100 in 1961 is worth $148 in 1973,
because prices increased 48.5% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$148
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.5%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$148
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.49
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1961 → 1973
$148
$100 in 1973 → 1961
$67.34
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1973
Between 1961 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.5%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1973: the 1961 dollar
lost 32.7% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.48: $1,000 becomes
$1,485, and $10,000 becomes $14,849.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.48
$5.00
$7.42
$10.00
$14.85
$20.00
$29.70
$50.00
$74.25
$100
$148
$500
$742
$1,000
$1,485
$5,000
$7,425
$10,000
$14,849
$100,000
$148,495
$1,000,000
$1,484,950
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1973
Between 1961 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 69.4%, while energy rose the least, up 30.7%, against 48.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$148
Medical care
4.49%
$169
Food
3.92%
$159
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.27%
$147
Apparel
2.85%
$140
Transportation
2.65%
$137
Energy
2.25%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $112 by
1967, on its way to $148 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $148; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1973: $100 is worth $148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1973/