$100 in 1942 is worth $185 in 1962,
because prices increased 85.3% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1942 has
the same buying power as
$185
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
85.3%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$185
Price difference ($100 base)
$85.28
CPI in 1942
16.3
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1942 → 1962
$185
$100 in 1962 → 1942
$53.97
What happened to prices between 1942 and 1962
Between 1942 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.3 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 85.3%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1942 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1962: the 1942 dollar
lost 46.0% of its purchasing power over
these 20 years.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1942 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.85: $1,000 becomes
$1,853, and $10,000 becomes $18,528.
Amount in 1942
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.85
$5.00
$9.26
$10.00
$18.53
$20.00
$37.06
$50.00
$92.64
$100
$185
$500
$926
$1,000
$1,853
$5,000
$9,264
$10,000
$18,528
$100,000
$185,276
$1,000,000
$1,852,761
Inflation by spending category, 1942–1962
Between 1942 and 1962, medical care rose the most, up 119.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.4%, against 85.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1942
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1942 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$185
Medical care
4.01%
$220
Food
3.49%
$199
Transportation
3.33%
$193
Apparel
2.79%
$173
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1942: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1942 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.01% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1942–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1942, at end
1942–1950
5.01%
47.9%
$148
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$182
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1942
$100 from 1942 had already become $163 by
1952, on its way to $185 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 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1942 had the buying
power of $185; 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 1942 to 1962: $100 is worth $185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1942 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1942-to-1962/