$100 in 1962 is worth $531 in 1997,
because prices increased 431.5% over that period, an average of
4.89% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$531
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
431.5%
Average inflation rate
4.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$531
Price difference ($100 base)
$431
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1962 → 1997
$531
$100 in 1997 → 1962
$18.82
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1997
Between 1962 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 431.5%, which works out to an average of
4.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1997: the 1962 dollar
lost 81.2% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1997 at the same ratio, 5.31: $1,000 becomes
$5,315, and $10,000 becomes $53,146.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1997
$1.00
$5.31
$5.00
$26.57
$10.00
$53.15
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$266
$100
$531
$500
$2,657
$1,000
$5,315
$5,000
$26,573
$10,000
$53,146
$100,000
$531,457
$1,000,000
$5,314,570
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1997
Between 1962 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 898.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.0%, against 431.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.89%
$531
Medical care
6.79%
$998
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.94%
$540
Food
4.79%
$514
Energy
4.67%
$493
Transportation
4.51%
$469
Apparel
3.06%
$287
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$531
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $273 by
1980, on its way to $531 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $531; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1997: $100 is worth $531 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1997/