$100 in 1962 is worth $722 in 2010,
because prices increased 622.0% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$722
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
622.0%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$722
Price difference ($100 base)
$622
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1962 → 2010
$722
$100 in 2010 → 1962
$13.85
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2010
Between 1962 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 622.0%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2010: the 1962 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 2010 at the same ratio, 7.22: $1,000 becomes
$7,220, and $10,000 becomes $72,204.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2010
$1.00
$7.22
$5.00
$36.10
$10.00
$72.20
$20.00
$144
$50.00
$361
$100
$722
$500
$3,610
$1,000
$7,220
$5,000
$36,102
$10,000
$72,204
$100,000
$722,040
$1,000,000
$7,220,397
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2010
Between 1962 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 1552.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 158.1%, against 622.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$722
Medical care
6.02%
$1,653
Energy
4.77%
$936
Food
4.19%
$718
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.15%
$705
Transportation
3.90%
$628
Apparel
2.00%
$258
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$722
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $363 by
1986, on its way to $722 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $722; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2010: $100 is worth $722 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2010/