$100 in 1961 is worth $218 in 1978,
because prices increased 118.1% over that period, an average of
4.69% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$218
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
118.1%
Average inflation rate
4.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$218
Price difference ($100 base)
$118
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1961 → 1978
$218
$100 in 1978 → 1961
$45.86
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1978
Between 1961 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 118.1%, which works out to an average of
4.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1978: the 1961 dollar
lost 54.1% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1978 at the same ratio, 2.18: $1,000 becomes
$2,181, and $10,000 becomes $21,806.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.18
$5.00
$10.90
$10.00
$21.81
$20.00
$43.61
$50.00
$109
$100
$218
$500
$1,090
$1,000
$2,181
$5,000
$10,903
$10,000
$21,806
$100,000
$218,060
$1,000,000
$2,180,602
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1978
Between 1961 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 169.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 76.6%, against 118.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.69%
$218
Medical care
6.01%
$270
Food
5.20%
$237
Energy
5.11%
$233
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.50%
$211
Transportation
4.31%
$205
Apparel
3.40%
$177
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$218
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $123 by
1969, on its way to $218 in 1978; 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 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $218; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1978: $100 is worth $218 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1978/