$100 in 1962 is worth $478 in 1993,
because prices increased 378.5% over that period, an average of
5.18% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$478
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
378.5%
Average inflation rate
5.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$478
Price difference ($100 base)
$378
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1962 → 1993
$478
$100 in 1993 → 1962
$20.90
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1993
Between 1962 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 378.5%, which works out to an average of
5.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1993: the 1962 dollar
lost 79.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1993 at the same ratio, 4.78: $1,000 becomes
$4,785, and $10,000 becomes $47,848.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1993
$1.00
$4.78
$5.00
$23.92
$10.00
$47.85
$20.00
$95.70
$50.00
$239
$100
$478
$500
$2,392
$1,000
$4,785
$5,000
$23,924
$10,000
$47,848
$100,000
$478,477
$1,000,000
$4,784,768
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1993
Between 1962 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 757.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.8%, against 378.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.18%
$478
Medical care
7.18%
$857
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.22%
$485
Energy
5.05%
$461
Food
5.05%
$460
Transportation
4.77%
$423
Apparel
3.48%
$289
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1993
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 1962–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$478
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $216 by
1978, on its way to $478 in 1993; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $478; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1993: $100 is worth $478 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1993/