$100 in 1962 is worth $103 in 1964,
because prices increased 2.6% over that period, an average of
1.32% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.6%
Average inflation rate
1.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.65
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1962 → 1964
$103
$100 in 1964 → 1962
$97.42
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1964
Between 1962 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.6%, which works out to an average of
1.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1964: the 1962 dollar
lost 2.6% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
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.
Every 1962 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,026, and $10,000 becomes $10,265.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.13
$10.00
$10.26
$20.00
$20.53
$50.00
$51.32
$100
$103
$500
$513
$1,000
$1,026
$5,000
$5,132
$10,000
$10,265
$100,000
$102,649
$1,000,000
$1,026,490
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1964
Between 1962 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 4.7%, while energy fell 0.4%, against 2.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.32%
$103
Medical care
2.31%
$105
Food
1.46%
$103
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.42%
$103
Apparel
1.07%
$102
Transportation
0.97%
$102
Energy
-0.22%
$99.56
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $101 by
1963, on its way to $103 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 1.3% in 1963, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $103; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1964: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1964/