$100 in 1962 is worth $760 in 2012,
because prices increased 660.2% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$760
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
660.2%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$760
Price difference ($100 base)
$660
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1962 → 2012
$760
$100 in 2012 → 1962
$13.15
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2012
Between 1962 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 660.2%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2012: the 1962 dollar
lost 86.8% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 2012 at the same ratio, 7.60: $1,000 becomes
$7,602, and $10,000 becomes $76,025.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2012
$1.00
$7.60
$5.00
$38.01
$10.00
$76.02
$20.00
$152
$50.00
$380
$100
$760
$500
$3,801
$1,000
$7,602
$5,000
$38,012
$10,000
$76,025
$100,000
$760,245
$1,000,000
$7,602,450
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2012
Between 1962 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 1665.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 172.7%, against 660.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$760
Medical care
5.91%
$1,766
Energy
4.89%
$1,089
Food
4.15%
$764
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.06%
$732
Transportation
3.99%
$706
Apparel
2.03%
$273
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2012
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 1962–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$760
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $363 by
1986, on its way to $760 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $760; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2012: $100 is worth $760 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2012/