$100 in 1962 is worth $795 in 2016,
because prices increased 694.7% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$795
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
694.7%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$795
Price difference ($100 base)
$695
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1962 → 2016
$795
$100 in 2016 → 1962
$12.58
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2016
Between 1962 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 694.7%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2016: the 1962 dollar
lost 87.4% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2016 at the same ratio, 7.95: $1,000 becomes
$7,947, and $10,000 becomes $79,473.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2016
$1.00
$7.95
$5.00
$39.74
$10.00
$79.47
$20.00
$159
$50.00
$397
$100
$795
$500
$3,974
$1,000
$7,947
$5,000
$39,736
$10,000
$79,473
$100,000
$794,725
$1,000,000
$7,947,252
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2016
Between 1962 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 1873.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 172.2%, against 694.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$795
Medical care
5.68%
$1,973
Energy
4.02%
$839
Food
3.95%
$810
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.90%
$789
Transportation
3.48%
$633
Apparel
1.87%
$272
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$795
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $392 by
1988, on its way to $795 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $795; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2016: $100 is worth $795 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2016/