$100 in 1961 is worth $693 in 2007,
because prices increased 593.5% over that period, an average of
4.30% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$693
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
593.5%
Average inflation rate
4.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$693
Price difference ($100 base)
$593
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1961 → 2007
$693
$100 in 2007 → 1961
$14.42
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2007
Between 1961 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 593.5%, which works out to an average of
4.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2007: the 1961 dollar
lost 85.6% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 2007 at the same ratio, 6.93: $1,000 becomes
$6,935, and $10,000 becomes $69,345.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2007
$1.00
$6.93
$5.00
$34.67
$10.00
$69.35
$20.00
$139
$50.00
$347
$100
$693
$500
$3,467
$1,000
$6,935
$5,000
$34,673
$10,000
$69,345
$100,000
$693,452
$1,000,000
$6,934,515
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2007
Between 1961 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 1433.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.1%, against 593.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.30%
$693
Medical care
6.11%
$1,533
Energy
4.95%
$923
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.25%
$680
Food
4.21%
$667
Transportation
4.02%
$614
Apparel
2.08%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$693
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $333 by
1983, on its way to $693 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $693; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2007: $100 is worth $693 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2007/