$100 in 1933 is worth $232 in 1962,
because prices increased 132.3% over that period, an average of
2.95% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$232
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
132.3%
Average inflation rate
2.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$232
Price difference ($100 base)
$132
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1933 → 1962
$232
$100 in 1962 → 1933
$43.05
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1962
Between 1933 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 132.3%, which works out to an average of
2.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1962: the 1933 dollar
lost 57.0% of its purchasing power over
these 29 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 2.32: $1,000 becomes
$2,323, and $10,000 becomes $23,231.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1962
$1.00
$2.32
$5.00
$11.62
$10.00
$23.23
$20.00
$46.46
$50.00
$116
$100
$232
$500
$1,162
$1,000
$2,323
$5,000
$11,615
$10,000
$23,231
$100,000
$232,308
$1,000,000
$2,323,077
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1962
Between 1933 and 1962, food rose the most, up 194.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 146.3%, against 132.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.95%
$232
Food
3.79%
$294
Apparel
3.16%
$246
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$232
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $172 by
1947, on its way to $232 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 2.1% in 1938, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1933 had the buying
power of $232; 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 1933 to 1962: $100 is worth $232 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1962/