$100 in 1962 is worth $668 in 2006,
because prices increased 567.5% over that period, an average of
4.41% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$668
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
567.5%
Average inflation rate
4.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$668
Price difference ($100 base)
$568
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1962 → 2006
$668
$100 in 2006 → 1962
$14.98
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2006
Between 1962 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 567.5%, which works out to an average of
4.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2006: the 1962 dollar
lost 85.0% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 2006 at the same ratio, 6.68: $1,000 becomes
$6,675, and $10,000 becomes $66,755.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2006
$1.00
$6.68
$5.00
$33.38
$10.00
$66.75
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$334
$100
$668
$500
$3,338
$1,000
$6,675
$5,000
$33,377
$10,000
$66,755
$100,000
$667,550
$1,000,000
$6,675,497
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2006
Between 1962 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 1330.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.1%, against 567.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.41%
$668
Medical care
6.23%
$1,431
Energy
5.04%
$871
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.37%
$656
Food
4.30%
$638
Transportation
4.11%
$587
Apparel
2.18%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$668
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $344 by
1984, on its way to $668 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $668; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2006: $100 is worth $668 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2006/