$100 in 1962 is worth $320 in 1982,
because prices increased 219.5% over that period, an average of
5.98% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$320
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
219.5%
Average inflation rate
5.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$320
Price difference ($100 base)
$220
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1962 → 1982
$320
$100 in 1982 → 1962
$31.30
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1982
Between 1962 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 219.5%, which works out to an average of
5.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1982: the 1962 dollar
lost 68.7% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1982 at the same ratio, 3.20: $1,000 becomes
$3,195, and $10,000 becomes $31,954.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1982
$1.00
$3.20
$5.00
$15.98
$10.00
$31.95
$20.00
$63.91
$50.00
$160
$100
$320
$500
$1,598
$1,000
$3,195
$5,000
$15,977
$10,000
$31,954
$100,000
$319,536
$1,000,000
$3,195,364
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1982
Between 1962 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 338.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 111.2%, against 219.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.98%
$320
Energy
7.68%
$439
Medical care
7.09%
$394
Food
5.96%
$318
Transportation
5.90%
$315
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.74%
$305
Apparel
3.81%
$211
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1962, at end
1962–1970
3.18%
28.5%
$128
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$273
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$320
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $138 by
1972, on its way to $320 in 1982; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.3% in 1964.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $320; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1982: $100 is worth $320 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1982/