$100 in 1975 is worth $185 in 1983,
because prices increased 85.1% over that period, an average of
8.00% a year.
$100 in 1975 has
the same buying power as
$185
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
85.1%
Average inflation rate
8.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$185
Price difference ($100 base)
$85.13
CPI in 1975
53.8
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1975 → 1983
$185
$100 in 1983 → 1975
$54.02
What happened to prices between 1975 and 1983
Between 1975 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 53.8 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 85.1%, which works out to an average of
8.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1975 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1983: the 1975 dollar
lost 46.0% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
Every 1975 amount converts to 1983 at the same ratio, 1.85: $1,000 becomes
$1,851, and $10,000 becomes $18,513.
Amount in 1975
Value in 1983
$1.00
$1.85
$5.00
$9.26
$10.00
$18.51
$20.00
$37.03
$50.00
$92.57
$100
$185
$500
$926
$1,000
$1,851
$5,000
$9,257
$10,000
$18,513
$100,000
$185,130
$1,000,000
$1,851,301
Inflation by spending category, 1975–1983
Between 1975 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 137.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 38.2%, against 85.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1975
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1975 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.00%
$185
Energy
11.41%
$237
Medical care
9.83%
$212
Transportation
8.93%
$198
Housing
8.79%
$196
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.98%
$185
Food
6.56%
$166
Apparel
4.13%
$138
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1975: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1975 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 8.90% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (6.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1975–1983 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1975, at end
1975–1980
8.90%
53.2%
$153
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1975
$100 from 1975 had already become $135 by
1979, on its way to $185 in 1983; 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 3.2% in 1983.
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1975 had the buying
power of $185; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1975 to 1983: $100 is worth $185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1975 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1975-to-1983/