$100 in 1962 is worth $188 in 1976,
because prices increased 88.4% over that period, an average of
4.63% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$188
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
88.4%
Average inflation rate
4.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$188
Price difference ($100 base)
$88.41
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1962 → 1976
$188
$100 in 1976 → 1962
$53.08
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1976
Between 1962 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 88.4%, which works out to an average of
4.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1976: the 1962 dollar
lost 46.9% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1976 at the same ratio, 1.88: $1,000 becomes
$1,884, and $10,000 becomes $18,841.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1976
$1.00
$1.88
$5.00
$9.42
$10.00
$18.84
$20.00
$37.68
$50.00
$94.21
$100
$188
$500
$942
$1,000
$1,884
$5,000
$9,421
$10,000
$18,841
$100,000
$188,411
$1,000,000
$1,884,106
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1976
Between 1962 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 121.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 62.4%, against 88.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.63%
$188
Medical care
5.84%
$221
Food
5.12%
$201
Energy
5.06%
$200
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.40%
$183
Transportation
4.24%
$179
Apparel
3.53%
$162
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1976 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$188
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $122 by
1969, on its way to $188 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $188; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1976: $100 is worth $188 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1976/