$100 in 1961 is worth $632 in 2004,
because prices increased 531.8% over that period, an average of
4.38% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$632
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
531.8%
Average inflation rate
4.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$632
Price difference ($100 base)
$532
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1961 → 2004
$632
$100 in 2004 → 1961
$15.83
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2004
Between 1961 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 531.8%, which works out to an average of
4.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2004: the 1961 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2004 at the same ratio, 6.32: $1,000 becomes
$6,318, and $10,000 becomes $63,177.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2004
$1.00
$6.32
$5.00
$31.59
$10.00
$63.18
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$316
$100
$632
$500
$3,159
$1,000
$6,318
$5,000
$31,589
$10,000
$63,177
$100,000
$631,773
$1,000,000
$6,317,726
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2004
Between 1961 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 1254.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 161.2%, against 531.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.38%
$632
Medical care
6.25%
$1,354
Energy
4.53%
$673
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.39%
$634
Food
4.30%
$613
Transportation
4.01%
$542
Apparel
2.26%
$261
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2004 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$576
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$632
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $333 by
1983, on its way to $632 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $632; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2004: $100 is worth $632 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2004/