$100 in 1961 is worth $820 in 2017,
because prices increased 719.8% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$820
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
719.8%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$820
Price difference ($100 base)
$720
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1961 → 2017
$820
$100 in 2017 → 1961
$12.20
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2017
Between 1961 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 719.8%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2017: the 1961 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 2017 at the same ratio, 8.20: $1,000 becomes
$8,198, and $10,000 becomes $81,980.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2017
$1.00
$8.20
$5.00
$40.99
$10.00
$81.98
$20.00
$164
$50.00
$410
$100
$820
$500
$4,099
$1,000
$8,198
$5,000
$40,990
$10,000
$81,980
$100,000
$819,799
$1,000,000
$8,197,993
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2017
Between 1961 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 1975.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 172.5%, against 719.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$820
Medical care
5.57%
$2,076
Energy
4.02%
$909
Food
3.83%
$823
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.81%
$813
Transportation
3.45%
$670
Apparel
1.81%
$272
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$820
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $415 by
1989, on its way to $820 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $820; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2017: $100 is worth $820 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2017/