$100 in 1921 is worth $169 in 1962,
because prices increased 68.7% over that period, an average of
1.28% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$169
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
68.7%
Average inflation rate
1.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$169
Price difference ($100 base)
$68.72
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1921 → 1962
$169
$100 in 1962 → 1921
$59.27
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1962
Between 1921 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 68.7%, which works out to an average of
1.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1962: the 1921 dollar
lost 40.7% of its purchasing power over
these 41 years.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1921 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.69: $1,000 becomes
$1,687, and $10,000 becomes $16,872.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.69
$5.00
$8.44
$10.00
$16.87
$20.00
$33.74
$50.00
$84.36
$100
$169
$500
$844
$1,000
$1,687
$5,000
$8,436
$10,000
$16,872
$100,000
$168,715
$1,000,000
$1,687,151
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1962
Between 1921 and 1962, food rose the most, up 92.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 39.5%, against 68.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.28%
$169
Food
1.61%
$192
Apparel
0.81%
$139
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1921: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1921 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$78.21
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$135
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$165
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$169
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $82.12 by
1941, on its way to $169 in 1962; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1962
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $169; the year's average CPI of 30.2 is the level
behind every 1962 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1962, matching 1961’s pace as
inflation stayed remarkably low and unemployment slowly declined from its
recession-era highs. That January, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers
introduced “wage-price guideposts,” non-binding targets meant to keep pay
and price increases in line with productivity growth without formal
controls. The space race delivered a milestone that February, when John
Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule circled Earth three times, making him the
first American to orbit the planet. Markets got a scare that spring: a
dispute over U.S. Steel’s April price increase, which Kennedy publicly
pressured the company into rolling back, rattled investors, and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell about 5.7% on May 28, its steepest one-day
drop since the 1929 crash. The year’s gravest moment came that October,
when American reconnaissance photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, setting off a 13-day standoff that brought the two superpowers
closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War before the
Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge
not to invade the island. Consumer prices finished 1962 205.1% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.15 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1962: $100 is worth $169 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1962/