$100 in 1962 is worth $178 in 1975,
because prices increased 78.1% over that period, an average of
4.54% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$178
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.1%
Average inflation rate
4.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$178
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.15
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1962 → 1975
$178
$100 in 1975 → 1962
$56.13
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1975
Between 1962 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.1%, which works out to an average of
4.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1975: the 1962 dollar
lost 43.9% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1975 at the same ratio, 1.78: $1,000 becomes
$1,781, and $10,000 becomes $17,815.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1975
$1.00
$1.78
$5.00
$8.91
$10.00
$17.81
$20.00
$35.63
$50.00
$89.07
$100
$178
$500
$891
$1,000
$1,781
$5,000
$8,907
$10,000
$17,815
$100,000
$178,146
$1,000,000
$1,781,457
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1975
Between 1962 and 1975, medical care rose the most, up 102.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.6%, against 78.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.54%
$178
Medical care
5.56%
$202
Food
5.29%
$195
Energy
4.90%
$186
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.24%
$172
Transportation
3.81%
$163
Apparel
3.51%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1975 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$178
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $115 by
1968, on its way to $178 in 1975; 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 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $178; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1975: $100 is worth $178 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1975/