$100 in 1961 is worth $768 in 2012,
because prices increased 667.9% over that period, an average of
4.08% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$768
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
667.9%
Average inflation rate
4.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$768
Price difference ($100 base)
$668
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1961 → 2012
$768
$100 in 2012 → 1961
$13.02
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2012
Between 1961 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 667.9%, which works out to an average of
4.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2012: the 1961 dollar
lost 87.0% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 2012 at the same ratio, 7.68: $1,000 becomes
$7,679, and $10,000 becomes $76,787.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2012
$1.00
$7.68
$5.00
$38.39
$10.00
$76.79
$20.00
$154
$50.00
$384
$100
$768
$500
$3,839
$1,000
$7,679
$5,000
$38,394
$10,000
$76,787
$100,000
$767,873
$1,000,000
$7,678,729
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2012
Between 1961 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 1711.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 173.9%, against 667.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.08%
$768
Medical care
5.84%
$1,812
Energy
4.80%
$1,094
Food
4.08%
$769
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.01%
$741
Transportation
3.95%
$722
Apparel
2.00%
$274
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2012
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 1961–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$768
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $380 by
1987, on its way to $768 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $768; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2012: $100 is worth $768 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2012/