$100 in 1962 is worth $505 in 1995,
because prices increased 404.6% over that period, an average of
5.03% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$505
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
404.6%
Average inflation rate
5.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$505
Price difference ($100 base)
$405
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1962 → 1995
$505
$100 in 1995 → 1962
$19.82
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1995
Between 1962 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 404.6%, which works out to an average of
5.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1995: the 1962 dollar
lost 80.2% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1995 at the same ratio, 5.05: $1,000 becomes
$5,046, and $10,000 becomes $50,464.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.05
$5.00
$25.23
$10.00
$50.46
$20.00
$101
$50.00
$252
$100
$505
$500
$2,523
$1,000
$5,046
$5,000
$25,232
$10,000
$50,464
$100,000
$504,636
$1,000,000
$5,046,358
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1995
Between 1962 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 838.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 185.1%, against 404.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.03%
$505
Medical care
7.02%
$938
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.08%
$513
Food
4.90%
$485
Energy
4.77%
$465
Transportation
4.67%
$452
Apparel
3.23%
$285
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$505
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $216 by
1978, on its way to $505 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $505; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1995: $100 is worth $505 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1995/