$100 in 1974 is worth $196 in 1982,
because prices increased 95.7% over that period, an average of
8.76% a year.
$100 in 1974 has
the same buying power as
$196
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.7%
Average inflation rate
8.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$196
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.74
CPI in 1974
49.3
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1974 → 1982
$196
$100 in 1982 → 1974
$51.09
What happened to prices between 1974 and 1982
Between 1974 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 49.3 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.7%, which works out to an average of
8.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1974 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1982: the 1974 dollar
lost 48.9% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
Every 1974 amount converts to 1982 at the same ratio, 1.96: $1,000 becomes
$1,957, and $10,000 becomes $19,574.
Amount in 1974
Value in 1982
$1.00
$1.96
$5.00
$9.79
$10.00
$19.57
$20.00
$39.15
$50.00
$97.87
$100
$196
$500
$979
$1,000
$1,957
$5,000
$9,787
$10,000
$19,574
$100,000
$195,740
$1,000,000
$1,957,404
Inflation by spending category, 1974–1982
Between 1974 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 160.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 40.9%, against 95.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1974
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1974 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.76%
$196
Energy
12.71%
$260
Medical care
10.24%
$218
Transportation
9.83%
$212
Housing
9.82%
$212
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.63%
$194
Food
7.38%
$177
Apparel
4.38%
$141
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1974: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1974 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.94% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (8.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1974–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1974, at end
1974–1980
8.94%
67.1%
$167
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$196
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1974
$100 from 1974 had already become $132 by
1978, on its way to $196 in 1982; 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 the smallest rise was 5.8% in 1976.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1974 had the buying
power of $196; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1974 to 1982: $100 is worth $196 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1974 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-1982/