$100 in 1961 is worth $674 in 2006,
because prices increased 574.2% over that period, an average of
4.33% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$674
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
574.2%
Average inflation rate
4.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$674
Price difference ($100 base)
$574
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1961 → 2006
$674
$100 in 2006 → 1961
$14.83
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2006
Between 1961 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 574.2%, which works out to an average of
4.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2006: the 1961 dollar
lost 85.2% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2006 at the same ratio, 6.74: $1,000 becomes
$6,742, and $10,000 becomes $67,425.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2006
$1.00
$6.74
$5.00
$33.71
$10.00
$67.42
$20.00
$135
$50.00
$337
$100
$674
$500
$3,371
$1,000
$6,742
$5,000
$33,712
$10,000
$67,425
$100,000
$674,247
$1,000,000
$6,742,475
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2006
Between 1961 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1368.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 159.2%, against 574.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.33%
$674
Medical care
6.15%
$1,468
Energy
4.94%
$875
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.30%
$664
Food
4.22%
$642
Transportation
4.07%
$601
Apparel
2.14%
$259
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$674
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $333 by
1983, on its way to $674 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $674; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2006: $100 is worth $674 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2006/