$100 in 1962 is worth $687 in 2007,
because prices increased 586.6% over that period, an average of
4.37% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$687
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
586.6%
Average inflation rate
4.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$687
Price difference ($100 base)
$587
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1962 → 2007
$687
$100 in 2007 → 1962
$14.57
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2007
Between 1962 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 586.6%, which works out to an average of
4.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.15 buys in 2007: the 1962 dollar
lost 85.4% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2007 at the same ratio, 6.87: $1,000 becomes
$6,866, and $10,000 becomes $68,656.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2007
$1.00
$6.87
$5.00
$34.33
$10.00
$68.66
$20.00
$137
$50.00
$343
$100
$687
$500
$3,433
$1,000
$6,866
$5,000
$34,328
$10,000
$68,656
$100,000
$686,563
$1,000,000
$6,865,629
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2007
Between 1962 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 1393.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 157.0%, against 586.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.37%
$687
Medical care
6.19%
$1,494
Energy
5.05%
$919
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.32%
$671
Food
4.29%
$663
Transportation
4.06%
$600
Apparel
2.12%
$257
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$687
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $344 by
1984, on its way to $687 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $687; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2007: $100 is worth $687 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2007/