$100 in 1962 is worth $216 in 1978,
because prices increased 115.9% over that period, an average of
4.93% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
115.9%
Average inflation rate
4.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1962 → 1978
$216
$100 in 1978 → 1962
$46.32
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1978
Between 1962 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 115.9%, which works out to an average of
4.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1978: the 1962 dollar
lost 53.7% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1978 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,159, and $10,000 becomes $21,589.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.79
$10.00
$21.59
$20.00
$43.18
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,079
$1,000
$2,159
$5,000
$10,795
$10,000
$21,589
$100,000
$215,894
$1,000,000
$2,158,940
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1978
Between 1962 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 163.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.8%, against 115.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.93%
$216
Medical care
6.23%
$263
Food
5.49%
$235
Energy
5.41%
$232
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.70%
$209
Transportation
4.44%
$200
Apparel
3.59%
$176
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $128 by
1970, on its way to $216 in 1978; 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 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1978: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1978/