$100 in 1962 is worth $552 in 1999,
because prices increased 451.7% over that period, an average of
4.72% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$552
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
451.7%
Average inflation rate
4.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$552
Price difference ($100 base)
$452
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1962 → 1999
$552
$100 in 1999 → 1962
$18.13
What happened to prices between 1962 and 1999
Between 1962 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 451.7%, which works out to an average of
4.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1999: the 1962 dollar
lost 81.9% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1999 at the same ratio, 5.52: $1,000 becomes
$5,517, and $10,000 becomes $55,166.
Amount in 1962
Value in 1999
$1.00
$5.52
$5.00
$27.58
$10.00
$55.17
$20.00
$110
$50.00
$276
$100
$552
$500
$2,758
$1,000
$5,517
$5,000
$27,583
$10,000
$55,166
$100,000
$551,656
$1,000,000
$5,516,556
Inflation by spending category, 1962–1999
Between 1962 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 966.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.6%, against 451.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.72%
$552
Medical care
6.61%
$1,066
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.78%
$564
Food
4.64%
$536
Energy
4.28%
$472
Transportation
4.26%
$469
Apparel
2.86%
$284
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$552
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $273 by
1980, on its way to $552 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $552; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 1999: $100 is worth $552 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-1999/