$100 in 1962 is worth $147 in 1973,
because prices increased 47.0% over that period, an average of
3.57% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$147
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
47.0%
Average inflation rate
3.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$147
Price difference ($100 base)
$47.02
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1962 → 1973
$147
$100 in 1973 → 1962
$68.02
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1973
Between 1962 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 47.0%, which works out to an average of
3.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1973: the 1962 dollar
lost 32.0% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.47: $1,000 becomes
$1,470, and $10,000 becomes $14,702.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.47
$5.00
$7.35
$10.00
$14.70
$20.00
$29.40
$50.00
$73.51
$100
$147
$500
$735
$1,000
$1,470
$5,000
$7,351
$10,000
$14,702
$100,000
$147,020
$1,000,000
$1,470,199
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1973
Between 1962 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 65.1%, while energy rose the least, up 30.1%, against 47.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.57%
$147
Medical care
4.66%
$165
Food
4.22%
$158
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.45%
$145
Apparel
3.07%
$140
Transportation
2.68%
$134
Energy
2.42%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$147
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $111 by
1967, on its way to $147 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $147; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1973: $100 is worth $147 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1973/