$100 in 1962 is worth $812 in 2017,
because prices increased 711.7% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$812
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
711.7%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$812
Price difference ($100 base)
$712
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1962 → 2017
$812
$100 in 2017 → 1962
$12.32
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2017
Between 1962 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 711.7%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2017: the 1962 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2017 at the same ratio, 8.12: $1,000 becomes
$8,117, and $10,000 becomes $81,166.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2017
$1.00
$8.12
$5.00
$40.58
$10.00
$81.17
$20.00
$162
$50.00
$406
$100
$812
$500
$4,058
$1,000
$8,117
$5,000
$40,583
$10,000
$81,166
$100,000
$811,656
$1,000,000
$8,116,556
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2017
Between 1962 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 1922.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.3%, against 711.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$812
Medical care
5.62%
$2,023
Energy
4.09%
$905
Food
3.89%
$817
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.86%
$803
Transportation
3.47%
$654
Apparel
1.83%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$812
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $433 by
1990, on its way to $812 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $812; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2017: $100 is worth $812 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2017/