$100 in 1957 is worth $107 in 1962,
because prices increased 7.5% over that period, an average of
1.45% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.5%
Average inflation rate
1.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.47
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1957 → 1962
$107
$100 in 1962 → 1957
$93.05
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1962
Between 1957 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.5%, which works out to an average of
1.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1962: the 1957 dollar
lost 7.0% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,075, and $10,000 becomes $10,747.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.37
$10.00
$10.75
$20.00
$21.49
$50.00
$53.74
$100
$107
$500
$537
$1,000
$1,075
$5,000
$5,374
$10,000
$10,747
$100,000
$107,473
$1,000,000
$1,074,733
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1962
Between 1957 and 1962, medical care rose the most, up 19.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 4.0%, against 7.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.45%
$107
Medical care
3.59%
$119
Transportation
2.14%
$111
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.67%
$109
Food
1.15%
$106
Energy
1.00%
$105
Apparel
0.80%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.75% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$107
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $104 by
1959, on its way to $107 in 1962; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.8% in 1958, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1957 had the buying
power of $107; 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 1957 to 1962: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1962/