$100 in 1958 is worth $104 in 1962,
because prices increased 4.5% over that period, an average of
1.11% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$104
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
4.5%
Average inflation rate
1.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$104
Price difference ($100 base)
$4.50
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1958 → 1962
$104
$100 in 1962 → 1958
$95.70
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1962
Between 1958 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 4.5%, which works out to an average of
1.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.96 buys in 1962: the 1958 dollar
lost 4.3% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1962 at the same ratio, 1.04: $1,000 becomes
$1,045, and $10,000 becomes $10,450.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.04
$5.00
$5.22
$10.00
$10.45
$20.00
$20.90
$50.00
$52.25
$100
$104
$500
$522
$1,000
$1,045
$5,000
$5,225
$10,000
$10,450
$100,000
$104,498
$1,000,000
$1,044,983
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1962
Between 1958 and 1962, medical care rose the most, up 14.1%, while food rose the least, up 1.3%, against 4.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.11%
$104
Medical care
3.35%
$114
Transportation
1.87%
$108
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.49%
$106
Energy
1.26%
$105
Apparel
0.94%
$104
Food
0.33%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 1.20% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.01% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$104
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $102 by
1960, on its way to $104 in 1962; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.7% in 1960, and the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1958 had the buying
power of $104; 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 1958 to 1962: $100 is worth $104 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1962/