$100 in 1962 is worth $847 in 2019,
because prices increased 746.5% over that period, an average of
3.82% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$847
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
746.5%
Average inflation rate
3.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$847
Price difference ($100 base)
$747
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1962 → 2019
$847
$100 in 2019 → 1962
$11.81
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2019
Between 1962 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 746.5%, which works out to an average of
3.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.12 buys in 2019: the 1962 dollar
lost 88.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2019 at the same ratio, 8.47: $1,000 becomes
$8,465, and $10,000 becomes $84,655.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2019
$1.00
$8.47
$5.00
$42.33
$10.00
$84.65
$20.00
$169
$50.00
$423
$100
$847
$500
$4,233
$1,000
$8,465
$5,000
$42,327
$10,000
$84,655
$100,000
$846,546
$1,000,000
$8,465,464
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2019
Between 1962 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 2020.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 167.9%, against 746.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.82%
$847
Medical care
5.50%
$2,121
Energy
4.03%
$953
Food
3.81%
$844
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.80%
$838
Transportation
3.43%
$682
Apparel
1.74%
$268
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2019
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 1962–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$847
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $433 by
1990, on its way to $847 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $847; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2019: $100 is worth $847 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2019/