$100 in 1962 is worth $596 in 2002,
because prices increased 495.7% over that period, an average of
4.56% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$596
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
495.7%
Average inflation rate
4.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$596
Price difference ($100 base)
$496
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1962 → 2002
$596
$100 in 2002 → 1962
$16.79
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2002
Between 1962 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 495.7%, which works out to an average of
4.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.17 buys in 2002: the 1962 dollar
lost 83.2% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2002 at the same ratio, 5.96: $1,000 becomes
$5,957, and $10,000 becomes $59,570.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2002
$1.00
$5.96
$5.00
$29.78
$10.00
$59.57
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$298
$100
$596
$500
$2,978
$1,000
$5,957
$5,000
$29,785
$10,000
$59,570
$100,000
$595,695
$1,000,000
$5,956,954
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2002
Between 1962 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1115.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 167.8%, against 495.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.56%
$596
Medical care
6.44%
$1,215
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.61%
$607
Food
4.47%
$576
Energy
4.30%
$538
Transportation
4.09%
$496
Apparel
2.49%
$268
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$596
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $320 by
1982, on its way to $596 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $596; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2002: $100 is worth $596 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2002/