$100 in 1962 is worth $831 in 2018,
because prices increased 731.5% over that period, an average of
3.85% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$831
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
731.5%
Average inflation rate
3.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$831
Price difference ($100 base)
$731
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1962 → 2018
$831
$100 in 2018 → 1962
$12.03
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2018
Between 1962 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 731.5%, which works out to an average of
3.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2018: the 1962 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 2018 at the same ratio, 8.31: $1,000 becomes
$8,315, and $10,000 becomes $83,148.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2018
$1.00
$8.31
$5.00
$41.57
$10.00
$83.15
$20.00
$166
$50.00
$416
$100
$831
$500
$4,157
$1,000
$8,315
$5,000
$41,574
$10,000
$83,148
$100,000
$831,480
$1,000,000
$8,314,801
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2018
Between 1962 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 1962.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.4%, against 731.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.85%
$831
Medical care
5.55%
$2,063
Energy
4.15%
$973
Food
3.85%
$829
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.83%
$820
Transportation
3.49%
$684
Apparel
1.80%
$271
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$831
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $433 by
1990, on its way to $831 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $831; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2018: $100 is worth $831 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2018/