$100 in 1962 is worth $451 in 1991,
because prices increased 351.0% over that period, an average of
5.33% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$451
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
351.0%
Average inflation rate
5.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$451
Price difference ($100 base)
$351
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1962 → 1991
$451
$100 in 1991 → 1962
$22.17
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1991
Between 1962 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 351.0%, which works out to an average of
5.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1991: the 1962 dollar
lost 77.8% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1991 at the same ratio, 4.51: $1,000 becomes
$4,510, and $10,000 becomes $45,099.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.51
$5.00
$22.55
$10.00
$45.10
$20.00
$90.20
$50.00
$225
$100
$451
$500
$2,255
$1,000
$4,510
$5,000
$22,550
$10,000
$45,099
$100,000
$450,993
$1,000,000
$4,509,934
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1991
Between 1962 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 653.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 178.0%, against 351.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.33%
$451
Medical care
7.21%
$753
Energy
5.35%
$454
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.34%
$453
Food
5.29%
$445
Transportation
4.91%
$402
Apparel
3.59%
$278
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1991
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 1962–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$433
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$451
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $188 by
1976, on its way to $451 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $451; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1991: $100 is worth $451 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1991/