$100 in 1962 is worth $1,009 in 2023,
because prices increased 908.9% over that period, an average of
3.86% a year.
$100 in 1962 has
the same buying power as
$1,009
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
908.9%
Average inflation rate
3.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,009
Price difference ($100 base)
$909
CPI in 1962
30.2
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1962 → 2023
$1,009
$100 in 2023 → 1962
$9.91
What happened to prices between 1962 and 2023
Between 1962 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 30.2 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 908.9%, which works out to an average of
3.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1962 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2023: the 1962 dollar
lost 90.1% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2023 at the same ratio, 10.09: $1,000 becomes
$10,089, and $10,000 becomes $100,895.
Amount in 1962
Value in 2023
$1.00
$10.09
$5.00
$50.45
$10.00
$101
$20.00
$202
$50.00
$504
$100
$1,009
$500
$5,045
$1,000
$10,089
$5,000
$50,447
$10,000
$100,895
$100,000
$1,008,947
$1,000,000
$10,089,470
Inflation by spending category, 1962–2023
Between 1962 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 2236.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.0%, against 908.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1962
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1962 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.86%
$1,009
Medical care
5.30%
$2,337
Energy
4.23%
$1,253
Food
3.94%
$1,055
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.82%
$982
Transportation
3.60%
$867
Apparel
1.71%
$282
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1962: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1962 to 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1962–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$857
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,009
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1962
$100 from 1962 had already become $465 by
1992, on its way to $1,009 in 2023; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1962 had the buying
power of $1,009; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1962 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,009 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1962 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1962-to-2023/