$100 in 1961 is worth $180 in 1975,
because prices increased 79.9% over that period, an average of
4.29% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.9%
Average inflation rate
4.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$79.93
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1961 → 1975
$180
$100 in 1975 → 1961
$55.58
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1975
Between 1961 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.9%, which works out to an average of
4.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1975: the 1961 dollar
lost 44.4% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,799, and $10,000 becomes $17,993.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$9.00
$10.00
$17.99
$20.00
$35.99
$50.00
$89.97
$100
$180
$500
$900
$1,000
$1,799
$5,000
$8,997
$10,000
$17,993
$100,000
$179,933
$1,000,000
$1,799,331
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1975
Between 1961 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 107.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.3%, against 79.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.29%
$180
Medical care
5.35%
$207
Food
4.95%
$197
Energy
4.58%
$187
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.03%
$174
Transportation
3.71%
$166
Apparel
3.29%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1975 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $116 by
1968, on its way to $180 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $180; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1975: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1975/