$100 in 1950 is worth $125 in 1962,
because prices increased 25.3% over that period, an average of
1.90% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$125
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
25.3%
Average inflation rate
1.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$125
Price difference ($100 base)
$25.31
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1950 → 1962
$125
$100 in 1962 → 1950
$79.80
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1962
Between 1950 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 25.3%, which works out to an average of
1.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.80 buys in 1962: the 1950 dollar
lost 20.2% of its purchasing power over
these 12 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.25: $1,000 becomes
$1,253, and $10,000 becomes $12,531.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.25
$5.00
$6.27
$10.00
$12.53
$20.00
$25.06
$50.00
$62.66
$100
$125
$500
$627
$1,000
$1,253
$5,000
$6,266
$10,000
$12,531
$100,000
$125,311
$1,000,000
$1,253,112
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1962
Between 1950 and 1962, medical care rose the most, up 55.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 14.9%, against 25.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.90%
$125
Medical care
3.75%
$156
Transportation
2.58%
$136
Food
1.56%
$120
Apparel
1.16%
$115
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1950 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.08% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$125
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $113 by
1956, on its way to $125 in 1962; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.9% in 1951, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $125; 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 1950 to 1962: $100 is worth $125 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1962/