$100 in 1962 is worth $586 in 2001,
because prices increased 486.4% over that period, an average of
4.64% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$586
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
486.4%
Average inflation rate
4.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$586
Price difference ($100 base)
$486
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1962 → 2001
$586
$100 in 2001 → 1962
$17.05
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2001
Between 1962 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 486.4%, which works out to an average of
4.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2001: the 1962 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2001 at the same ratio, 5.86: $1,000 becomes
$5,864, and $10,000 becomes $58,642.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2001
$1.00
$5.86
$5.00
$29.32
$10.00
$58.64
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$293
$100
$586
$500
$2,932
$1,000
$5,864
$5,000
$29,321
$10,000
$58,642
$100,000
$586,424
$1,000,000
$5,864,238
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2001
Between 1962 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1060.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 174.9%, against 486.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.64%
$586
Medical care
6.49%
$1,161
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.67%
$593
Energy
4.57%
$572
Food
4.54%
$566
Transportation
4.22%
$501
Apparel
2.63%
$275
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2001
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 1962–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$570
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$586
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $320 by
1982, on its way to $586 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $586; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2001: $100 is worth $586 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2001/