$100 in 1962 is worth $330 in 1983,
because prices increased 229.8% over that period, an average of
5.85% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$330
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
229.8%
Average inflation rate
5.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$330
Price difference ($100 base)
$230
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1962 → 1983
$330
$100 in 1983 → 1962
$30.32
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1983
Between 1962 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 229.8%, which works out to an average of
5.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.30 buys in 1983: the 1962 dollar
lost 69.7% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1983 at the same ratio, 3.30: $1,000 becomes
$3,298, and $10,000 becomes $32,980.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1983
$1.00
$3.30
$5.00
$16.49
$10.00
$32.98
$20.00
$65.96
$50.00
$165
$100
$330
$500
$1,649
$1,000
$3,298
$5,000
$16,490
$10,000
$32,980
$100,000
$329,801
$1,000,000
$3,298,013
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1983
Between 1962 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 342.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 116.4%, against 229.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.85%
$330
Energy
7.33%
$442
Medical care
7.17%
$428
Food
5.77%
$325
Transportation
5.73%
$322
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.65%
$317
Apparel
3.74%
$216
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (3.18% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$330
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $138 by
1972, on its way to $330 in 1983; 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 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $330; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1983: $100 is worth $330 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1983/