$100 in 1962 is worth $163 in 1974,
because prices increased 63.2% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
63.2%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$63.25
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1962 → 1974
$163
$100 in 1974 → 1962
$61.26
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1974
Between 1962 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 63.2%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1974: the 1962 dollar
lost 38.7% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1974 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,632, and $10,000 becomes $16,325.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1974
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.16
$10.00
$16.32
$20.00
$32.65
$50.00
$81.62
$100
$163
$500
$816
$1,000
$1,632
$5,000
$8,162
$10,000
$16,325
$100,000
$163,245
$1,000,000
$1,632,450
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1974
Between 1962 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 80.4%, while transportation rose the least, up 48.7%, against 63.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$163
Medical care
5.04%
$180
Food
5.02%
$180
Energy
4.45%
$169
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.85%
$157
Apparel
3.43%
$150
Transportation
3.36%
$149
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $115 by
1968, on its way to $163 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1974: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1974/