$100 in 1962 is worth $134 in 1971,
because prices increased 34.1% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
34.1%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$34.11
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1962 → 1971
$134
$100 in 1971 → 1962
$74.57
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1971
Between 1962 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 34.1%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1971: the 1962 dollar
lost 25.4% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,341, and $10,000 becomes $13,411.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.71
$10.00
$13.41
$20.00
$26.82
$50.00
$67.05
$100
$134
$500
$671
$1,000
$1,341
$5,000
$6,705
$10,000
$13,411
$100,000
$134,106
$1,000,000
$1,341,060
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1971
Between 1962 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 53.6%, while energy rose the least, up 17.3%, against 34.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$134
Medical care
4.89%
$154
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.47%
$136
Food
3.14%
$132
Apparel
3.13%
$132
Transportation
2.80%
$128
Energy
1.78%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1971 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $107 by
1966, on its way to $134 in 1971; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.7% in 1970, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1971: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1971/