$100 in 1962 is worth $784 in 2014,
because prices increased 683.9% over that period, an average of
4.04% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$784
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
683.9%
Average inflation rate
4.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$784
Price difference ($100 base)
$684
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1962 → 2014
$784
$100 in 2014 → 1962
$12.76
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2014
Between 1962 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 683.9%, which works out to an average of
4.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2014: the 1962 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2014 at the same ratio, 7.84: $1,000 becomes
$7,839, and $10,000 becomes $78,389.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2014
$1.00
$7.84
$5.00
$39.19
$10.00
$78.39
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$392
$100
$784
$500
$3,919
$1,000
$7,839
$5,000
$39,195
$10,000
$78,389
$100,000
$783,894
$1,000,000
$7,838,940
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2014
Between 1962 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 1752.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.4%, against 683.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.04%
$784
Medical care
5.77%
$1,852
Energy
4.68%
$1,078
Food
4.06%
$793
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.97%
$758
Transportation
3.82%
$701
Apparel
1.97%
$275
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$784
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $392 by
1988, on its way to $784 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $784; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2014: $100 is worth $784 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2014/