$100 in 1961 is worth $793 in 2015,
because prices increased 692.7% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$793
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
692.7%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$793
Price difference ($100 base)
$693
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1961 → 2015
$793
$100 in 2015 → 1961
$12.62
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2015
Between 1961 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 692.7%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2015: the 1961 dollar
lost 87.4% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2015 at the same ratio, 7.93: $1,000 becomes
$7,927, and $10,000 becomes $79,270.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2015
$1.00
$7.93
$5.00
$39.63
$10.00
$79.27
$20.00
$159
$50.00
$396
$100
$793
$500
$3,963
$1,000
$7,927
$5,000
$39,635
$10,000
$79,270
$100,000
$792,699
$1,000,000
$7,926,990
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2015
Between 1961 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 1850.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 173.1%, against 692.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$793
Medical care
5.66%
$1,951
Energy
4.16%
$902
Food
3.96%
$813
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.88%
$781
Transportation
3.56%
$661
Apparel
1.88%
$273
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$793
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $380 by
1987, on its way to $793 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $793; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2015: $100 is worth $793 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2015/