$100 in 1961 is worth $165 in 1974,
because prices increased 64.9% over that period, an average of
3.92% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$165
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
64.9%
Average inflation rate
3.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$165
Price difference ($100 base)
$64.88
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1961 → 1974
$165
$100 in 1974 → 1961
$60.65
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1974
Between 1961 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 64.9%, which works out to an average of
3.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1974: the 1961 dollar
lost 39.4% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.65: $1,000 becomes
$1,649, and $10,000 becomes $16,488.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.65
$5.00
$8.24
$10.00
$16.49
$20.00
$32.98
$50.00
$82.44
$100
$165
$500
$824
$1,000
$1,649
$5,000
$8,244
$10,000
$16,488
$100,000
$164,883
$1,000,000
$1,648,829
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1974
Between 1961 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 85.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 50.5%, against 64.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.92%
$165
Medical care
4.85%
$185
Food
4.68%
$181
Energy
4.13%
$169
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.65%
$159
Transportation
3.28%
$152
Apparel
3.20%
$151
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $112 by
1967, on its way to $165 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $165; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1974: $100 is worth $165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1974/