$100 in 1961 is worth $718 in 2009,
because prices increased 617.5% over that period, an average of
4.19% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$718
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
617.5%
Average inflation rate
4.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$718
Price difference ($100 base)
$618
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1961 → 2009
$718
$100 in 2009 → 1961
$13.94
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2009
Between 1961 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 617.5%, which works out to an average of
4.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2009: the 1961 dollar
lost 86.1% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2009 at the same ratio, 7.18: $1,000 becomes
$7,175, and $10,000 becomes $71,752.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2009
$1.00
$7.18
$5.00
$35.88
$10.00
$71.75
$20.00
$144
$50.00
$359
$100
$718
$500
$3,588
$1,000
$7,175
$5,000
$35,876
$10,000
$71,752
$100,000
$717,515
$1,000,000
$7,175,151
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2009
Between 1961 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 1540.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 160.5%, against 617.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.19%
$718
Medical care
6.00%
$1,640
Energy
4.58%
$858
Food
4.19%
$717
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.16%
$707
Transportation
3.79%
$596
Apparel
2.01%
$260
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$718
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $360 by
1985, on its way to $718 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $718; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2009: $100 is worth $718 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2009/