$100 in 1961 is worth $840 in 2018,
because prices increased 739.8% over that period, an average of
3.80% a year.
$100 in 1961 has
the same buying power as
$840
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
739.8%
Average inflation rate
3.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$840
Price difference ($100 base)
$740
CPI in 1961
29.9
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1961 → 2018
$840
$100 in 2018 → 1961
$11.91
What happened to prices between 1961 and 2018
Between 1961 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.9 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 739.8%, which works out to an average of
3.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1961 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2018: the 1961 dollar
lost 88.1% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2018 at the same ratio, 8.40: $1,000 becomes
$8,398, and $10,000 becomes $83,982.
Amount in 1961
Value in 2018
$1.00
$8.40
$5.00
$41.99
$10.00
$83.98
$20.00
$168
$50.00
$420
$100
$840
$500
$4,199
$1,000
$8,398
$5,000
$41,991
$10,000
$83,982
$100,000
$839,823
$1,000,000
$8,398,227
Inflation by spending category, 1961–2018
Between 1961 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 2016.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 172.6%, against 739.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1961
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1961 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.80%
$840
Medical care
5.50%
$2,117
Energy
4.08%
$978
Food
3.79%
$834
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.78%
$831
Transportation
3.47%
$700
Apparel
1.77%
$273
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1961: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1961 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1961–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$840
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1961
$100 from 1961 had already become $415 by
1989, on its way to $840 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1961 had the buying
power of $840; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1961 to 2018: $100 is worth $840 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1961 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1961-to-2018/