$100 in 1961 is worth $545 in 1998,
because prices increased 445.2% over that period, an average of
4.69% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$545
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
445.2%
Average inflation rate
4.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$545
Price difference ($100 base)
$445
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1961 → 1998
$545
$100 in 1998 → 1961
$18.34
What happened to prices between 1961 and 1998
Between 1961 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 445.2%, which works out to an average of
4.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1998: the 1961 dollar
lost 81.7% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1998 at the same ratio, 5.45: $1,000 becomes
$5,452, and $10,000 becomes $54,515.
Amount in 1961
Value in 1998
$1.00
$5.45
$5.00
$27.26
$10.00
$54.52
$20.00
$109
$50.00
$273
$100
$545
$500
$2,726
$1,000
$5,452
$5,000
$27,258
$10,000
$54,515
$100,000
$545,151
$1,000,000
$5,451,505
Inflation by spending category, 1961–1998
Between 1961 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 957.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.5%, against 445.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.69%
$545
Medical care
6.58%
$1,057
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.76%
$559
Food
4.60%
$529
Transportation
4.27%
$470
Energy
4.19%
$457
Apparel
2.91%
$289
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$545
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $243 by
1979, on its way to $545 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $545; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 1998: $100 is worth $545 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-1998/