$100 in 1962 is worth $344 in 1984,
because prices increased 244.0% over that period, an average of
5.78% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$344
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
244.0%
Average inflation rate
5.78% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$344
Price difference ($100 base)
$244
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1962 → 1984
$344
$100 in 1984 → 1962
$29.07
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1984
Between 1962 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 244.0%, which works out to an average of
5.78% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1984: the 1962 dollar
lost 70.9% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1984 at the same ratio, 3.44: $1,000 becomes
$3,440, and $10,000 becomes $34,404.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1984
$1.00
$3.44
$5.00
$17.20
$10.00
$34.40
$20.00
$68.81
$50.00
$172
$100
$344
$500
$1,720
$1,000
$3,440
$5,000
$17,202
$10,000
$34,404
$100,000
$344,040
$1,000,000
$3,440,397
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1984
Between 1962 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 354.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 120.5%, against 244.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.78%
$344
Medical care
7.12%
$454
Energy
7.04%
$446
Food
5.68%
$337
Transportation
5.67%
$337
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.62%
$333
Apparel
3.66%
$221
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1984
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 1962–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$344
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $147 by
1973, on its way to $344 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $344; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1984: $100 is worth $344 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1984/