$100 in 1962 is worth $647 in 2005,
because prices increased 546.7% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$647
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
546.7%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$647
Price difference ($100 base)
$547
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1962 → 2005
$647
$100 in 2005 → 1962
$15.46
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2005
Between 1962 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 546.7%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2005: the 1962 dollar
lost 84.5% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 2005 at the same ratio, 6.47: $1,000 becomes
$6,467, and $10,000 becomes $64,669.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2005
$1.00
$6.47
$5.00
$32.33
$10.00
$64.67
$20.00
$129
$50.00
$323
$100
$647
$500
$3,233
$1,000
$6,467
$5,000
$32,334
$10,000
$64,669
$100,000
$646,689
$1,000,000
$6,466,887
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2005
Between 1962 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 1275.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.1%, against 546.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$647
Medical care
6.29%
$1,375
Energy
4.90%
$784
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.41%
$640
Food
4.35%
$623
Transportation
4.11%
$565
Apparel
2.23%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$647
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $344 by
1984, on its way to $647 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $647; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2005: $100 is worth $647 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2005/