$100 in 1961 is worth $729 in 2010,
because prices increased 629.3% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$729
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
629.3%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$729
Price difference ($100 base)
$629
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1961 → 2010
$729
$100 in 2010 → 1961
$13.71
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2010
Between 1961 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 629.3%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2010: the 1961 dollar
lost 86.3% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 2010 at the same ratio, 7.29: $1,000 becomes
$7,293, and $10,000 becomes $72,928.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2010
$1.00
$7.29
$5.00
$36.46
$10.00
$72.93
$20.00
$146
$50.00
$365
$100
$729
$500
$3,646
$1,000
$7,293
$5,000
$36,464
$10,000
$72,928
$100,000
$729,284
$1,000,000
$7,292,843
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2010
Between 1961 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1596.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 159.2%, against 629.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$729
Medical care
5.95%
$1,696
Energy
4.68%
$940
Food
4.12%
$722
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.09%
$714
Transportation
3.87%
$643
Apparel
1.96%
$259
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$729
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $360 by
1985, on its way to $729 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $729; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2010: $100 is worth $729 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2010/