$100 in 1962 is worth $356 in 1985,
because prices increased 256.3% over that period, an average of
5.68% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$356
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
256.3%
Average inflation rate
5.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$356
Price difference ($100 base)
$256
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1962 → 1985
$356
$100 in 1985 → 1962
$28.07
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1985
Between 1962 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 256.3%, which works out to an average of
5.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1985: the 1962 dollar
lost 71.9% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1985 at the same ratio, 3.56: $1,000 becomes
$3,563, and $10,000 becomes $35,629.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.56
$5.00
$17.81
$10.00
$35.63
$20.00
$71.26
$50.00
$178
$100
$356
$500
$1,781
$1,000
$3,563
$5,000
$17,815
$10,000
$35,629
$100,000
$356,291
$1,000,000
$3,562,914
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1985
Between 1962 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 383.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 126.8%, against 256.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.68%
$356
Medical care
7.09%
$483
Energy
6.75%
$450
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.56%
$347
Transportation
5.54%
$345
Food
5.53%
$345
Apparel
3.62%
$227
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1985
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 1962–1985 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
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$356
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $147 by
1973, on its way to $356 in 1985; 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 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $356; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1985: $100 is worth $356 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1985/