$100 in 1961 is worth $510 in 1995,
because prices increased 409.7% over that period, an average of
4.91% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$510
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
409.7%
Average inflation rate
4.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$510
Price difference ($100 base)
$410
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1961 → 1995
$510
$100 in 1995 → 1961
$19.62
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1995
Between 1961 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 409.7%, which works out to an average of
4.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1995: the 1961 dollar
lost 80.4% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.10: $1,000 becomes
$5,097, and $10,000 becomes $50,970.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.10
$5.00
$25.48
$10.00
$50.97
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$255
$100
$510
$500
$2,548
$1,000
$5,097
$5,000
$25,485
$10,000
$50,970
$100,000
$509,699
$1,000,000
$5,096,990
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1995
Between 1961 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 862.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 186.3%, against 409.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.91%
$510
Medical care
6.89%
$963
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.97%
$520
Food
4.77%
$488
Energy
4.64%
$468
Transportation
4.60%
$462
Apparel
3.14%
$286
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1995
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 1961–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$510
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $203 by
1977, on its way to $510 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $510; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1995: $100 is worth $510 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1995/