$100 in 1962 is worth $785 in 2015,
because prices increased 684.8% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$785
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
684.8%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$785
Price difference ($100 base)
$685
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1962 → 2015
$785
$100 in 2015 → 1962
$12.74
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2015
Between 1962 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 684.8%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2015: the 1962 dollar
lost 87.3% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2015 at the same ratio, 7.85: $1,000 becomes
$7,848, and $10,000 becomes $78,482.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2015
$1.00
$7.85
$5.00
$39.24
$10.00
$78.48
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$392
$100
$785
$500
$3,924
$1,000
$7,848
$5,000
$39,241
$10,000
$78,482
$100,000
$784,825
$1,000,000
$7,848,245
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2015
Between 1962 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 1801.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.9%, against 684.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$785
Medical care
5.71%
$1,901
Energy
4.23%
$898
Food
4.02%
$808
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.93%
$771
Transportation
3.58%
$646
Apparel
1.91%
$272
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$785
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $392 by
1988, on its way to $785 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $785; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2015: $100 is worth $785 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2015/