$100 in 1961 is worth $483 in 1993,
because prices increased 383.3% over that period, an average of
5.05% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$483
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
383.3%
Average inflation rate
5.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$483
Price difference ($100 base)
$383
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1961 → 1993
$483
$100 in 1993 → 1961
$20.69
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1993
Between 1961 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 383.3%, which works out to an average of
5.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1993: the 1961 dollar
lost 79.3% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1993 at the same ratio, 4.83: $1,000 becomes
$4,833, and $10,000 becomes $48,328.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1993
$1.00
$4.83
$5.00
$24.16
$10.00
$48.33
$20.00
$96.66
$50.00
$242
$100
$483
$500
$2,416
$1,000
$4,833
$5,000
$24,164
$10,000
$48,328
$100,000
$483,278
$1,000,000
$4,832,776
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1993
Between 1961 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 779.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 190.0%, against 383.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.05%
$483
Medical care
7.03%
$879
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.10%
$491
Food
4.91%
$463
Energy
4.91%
$463
Transportation
4.69%
$433
Apparel
3.38%
$290
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.94% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$437
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$483
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $203 by
1977, on its way to $483 in 1993; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $483; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1993: $100 is worth $483 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1993/