$100 in 1962 is worth $540 in 1998,
because prices increased 439.7% over that period, an average of
4.79% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$540
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
439.7%
Average inflation rate
4.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$540
Price difference ($100 base)
$440
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1962 → 1998
$540
$100 in 1998 → 1962
$18.53
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1998
Between 1962 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 439.7%, which works out to an average of
4.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1998: the 1962 dollar
lost 81.5% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1998 at the same ratio, 5.40: $1,000 becomes
$5,397, and $10,000 becomes $53,974.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1998
$1.00
$5.40
$5.00
$26.99
$10.00
$53.97
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$270
$100
$540
$500
$2,699
$1,000
$5,397
$5,000
$26,987
$10,000
$53,974
$100,000
$539,735
$1,000,000
$5,397,351
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1998
Between 1962 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 930.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.3%, against 439.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.79%
$540
Medical care
6.69%
$1,030
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.86%
$552
Food
4.71%
$525
Transportation
4.33%
$460
Energy
4.30%
$455
Apparel
2.97%
$287
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$540
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $273 by
1980, on its way to $540 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $540; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1998: $100 is worth $540 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1998/