$100 in 1962 is worth $609 in 2003,
because prices increased 509.3% over that period, an average of
4.51% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$609
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
509.3%
Average inflation rate
4.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$609
Price difference ($100 base)
$509
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1962 → 2003
$609
$100 in 2003 → 1962
$16.41
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2003
Between 1962 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 509.3%, which works out to an average of
4.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.16 buys in 2003: the 1962 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2003 at the same ratio, 6.09: $1,000 becomes
$6,093, and $10,000 becomes $60,927.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2003
$1.00
$6.09
$5.00
$30.46
$10.00
$60.93
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$305
$100
$609
$500
$3,046
$1,000
$6,093
$5,000
$30,464
$10,000
$60,927
$100,000
$609,272
$1,000,000
$6,092,715
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2003
Between 1962 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1164.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 161.1%, against 509.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.51%
$609
Medical care
6.38%
$1,264
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.53%
$615
Energy
4.48%
$604
Food
4.42%
$588
Transportation
4.06%
$512
Apparel
2.37%
$261
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$609
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $320 by
1982, on its way to $609 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $609; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2003: $100 is worth $609 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2003/