$100 in 1961 is worth $243 in 1979,
because prices increased 142.8% over that period, an average of
5.05% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$243
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
142.8%
Average inflation rate
5.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$243
Price difference ($100 base)
$143
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1961 → 1979
$243
$100 in 1979 → 1961
$41.18
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1979
Between 1961 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 142.8%, which works out to an average of
5.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1979: the 1961 dollar
lost 58.8% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1979 at the same ratio, 2.43: $1,000 becomes
$2,428, and $10,000 becomes $24,281.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.43
$5.00
$12.14
$10.00
$24.28
$20.00
$48.56
$50.00
$121
$100
$243
$500
$1,214
$1,000
$2,428
$5,000
$12,140
$10,000
$24,281
$100,000
$242,809
$1,000,000
$2,428,094
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1979
Between 1961 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 194.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 84.2%, against 142.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.05%
$243
Medical care
6.19%
$295
Energy
6.13%
$292
Food
5.52%
$263
Transportation
4.84%
$234
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.78%
$232
Apparel
3.45%
$184
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$243
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $130 by
1970, on its way to $243 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $243; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1979: $100 is worth $243 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1979/