$100 in 1962 is worth $491 in 1994,
because prices increased 390.7% over that period, an average of
5.10% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$491
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
390.7%
Average inflation rate
5.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$491
Price difference ($100 base)
$391
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1962 → 1994
$491
$100 in 1994 → 1962
$20.38
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1994
Between 1962 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 390.7%, which works out to an average of
5.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1994: the 1962 dollar
lost 79.6% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1994 at the same ratio, 4.91: $1,000 becomes
$4,907, and $10,000 becomes $49,073.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1994
$1.00
$4.91
$5.00
$24.54
$10.00
$49.07
$20.00
$98.15
$50.00
$245
$100
$491
$500
$2,454
$1,000
$4,907
$5,000
$24,536
$10,000
$49,073
$100,000
$490,728
$1,000,000
$4,907,285
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1994
Between 1962 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 797.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 188.1%, against 390.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.10%
$491
Medical care
7.10%
$898
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.15%
$498
Food
4.97%
$472
Energy
4.90%
$463
Transportation
4.71%
$436
Apparel
3.36%
$288
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1994
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 1962–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$491
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $216 by
1978, on its way to $491 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $491; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1994: $100 is worth $491 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1994/