$100 in 1961 is worth $323 in 1982,
because prices increased 222.7% over that period, an average of
5.74% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$323
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
222.7%
Average inflation rate
5.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$323
Price difference ($100 base)
$223
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1961 → 1982
$323
$100 in 1982 → 1961
$30.98
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1982
Between 1961 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 222.7%, which works out to an average of
5.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1982: the 1961 dollar
lost 69.0% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.23: $1,000 becomes
$3,227, and $10,000 becomes $32,274.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.23
$5.00
$16.14
$10.00
$32.27
$20.00
$64.55
$50.00
$161
$100
$323
$500
$1,614
$1,000
$3,227
$5,000
$16,137
$10,000
$32,274
$100,000
$322,742
$1,000,000
$3,227,425
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1982
Between 1961 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 340.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 112.1%, against 222.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.74%
$323
Energy
7.32%
$441
Medical care
6.87%
$404
Transportation
5.73%
$322
Food
5.70%
$320
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.52%
$309
Apparel
3.65%
$212
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1961, at end
1961–1970
2.94%
29.8%
$130
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$276
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$323
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $135 by
1971, on its way to $323 in 1982; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $323; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1982: $100 is worth $323 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1982/