$100 in 1922 is worth $180 in 1962,
because prices increased 79.8% over that period, an average of
1.48% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.8%
Average inflation rate
1.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$79.76
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1922 → 1962
$180
$100 in 1962 → 1922
$55.63
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1962
Between 1922 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.8%, which works out to an average of
1.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1962: the 1922 dollar
lost 44.4% of its purchasing power over
these 40 years.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
Every 1922 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,798, and $10,000 becomes $17,976.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$8.99
$10.00
$17.98
$20.00
$35.95
$50.00
$89.88
$100
$180
$500
$899
$1,000
$1,798
$5,000
$8,988
$10,000
$17,976
$100,000
$179,762
$1,000,000
$1,797,619
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1962
Between 1922 and 1962, food rose the most, up 105.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 71.5%, against 79.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.48%
$180
Food
1.82%
$205
Apparel
1.36%
$171
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1922: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1922 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 1922–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.33
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$143
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$176
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $97.02 by
1942, on its way to $180 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 1922 had the buying
power of $180; 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 1922 to 1962: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1962/