$100 in 1928 is worth $177 in 1962,
because prices increased 76.6% over that period, an average of
1.69% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$177
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
76.6%
Average inflation rate
1.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$177
Price difference ($100 base)
$76.61
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1928 → 1962
$177
$100 in 1962 → 1928
$56.62
What happened to prices between 1928 and 1962
Between 1928 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 76.6%, which works out to an average of
1.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1962: the 1928 dollar
lost 43.4% of its purchasing power over
these 34 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
Every 1928 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.77: $1,000 becomes
$1,766, and $10,000 becomes $17,661.
Amount in 1928
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.77
$5.00
$8.83
$10.00
$17.66
$20.00
$35.32
$50.00
$88.30
$100
$177
$500
$883
$1,000
$1,766
$5,000
$8,830
$10,000
$17,661
$100,000
$176,608
$1,000,000
$1,766,082
Inflation by spending category, 1928–1962
Between 1928 and 1962, food rose the most, up 87.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 85.2%, against 76.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.69%
$177
Food
1.87%
$188
Apparel
1.83%
$185
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1928: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1928 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 1928–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1928, at end
1928–1930
-1.18%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$177
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $103 by
1944, on its way to $177 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 1928 had the buying
power of $177; 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 1928 to 1962: $100 is worth $177 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-1962/