$100 in 1954 is worth $112 in 1962,
because prices increased 12.3% over that period, an average of
1.46% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$112
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
12.3%
Average inflation rate
1.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$112
Price difference ($100 base)
$12.27
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1954 → 1962
$112
$100 in 1962 → 1954
$89.07
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1962
Between 1954 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 12.3%, which works out to an average of
1.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.89 buys in 1962: the 1954 dollar
lost 10.9% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.12: $1,000 becomes
$1,123, and $10,000 becomes $11,227.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.12
$5.00
$5.61
$10.00
$11.23
$20.00
$22.45
$50.00
$56.13
$100
$112
$500
$561
$1,000
$1,123
$5,000
$5,613
$10,000
$11,227
$100,000
$112,268
$1,000,000
$1,122,677
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1962
Between 1954 and 1962, medical care rose the most, up 32.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.4%, against 12.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.46%
$112
Medical care
3.53%
$132
Transportation
2.09%
$118
Food
1.03%
$109
Apparel
0.90%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.61% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$112
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $107 by
1958, on its way to $112 in 1962; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.3% in 1957, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1954 had the buying
power of $112; 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 1954 to 1962: $100 is worth $112 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1962/