$100 in 1976 is worth $170 in 1982,
because prices increased 69.6% over that period, an average of
9.20% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$170
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.6%
Average inflation rate
9.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$170
Price difference ($100 base)
$69.60
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1976 → 1982
$170
$100 in 1982 → 1976
$58.96
What happened to prices between 1976 and 1982
Between 1976 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.6%, which works out to an average of
9.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1982: the 1976 dollar
lost 41.0% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
Every 1976 amount converts to 1982 at the same ratio, 1.70: $1,000 becomes
$1,696, and $10,000 becomes $16,960.
Amount in 1976
Value in 1982
$1.00
$1.70
$5.00
$8.48
$10.00
$16.96
$20.00
$33.92
$50.00
$84.80
$100
$170
$500
$848
$1,000
$1,696
$5,000
$8,480
$10,000
$16,960
$100,000
$169,596
$1,000,000
$1,695,958
Inflation by spending category, 1976–1982
Between 1976 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 120.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.1%, against 69.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.20%
$170
Energy
14.04%
$220
Housing
10.30%
$180
Medical care
10.08%
$178
Transportation
9.88%
$176
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.91%
$167
Food
7.94%
$158
Apparel
4.48%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1976 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.70% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (8.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1976–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1976, at end
1976–1980
9.70%
44.8%
$145
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$170
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $128 by
1979, on its way to $170 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 6.2% in 1982.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $170; 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 1976 to 1982: $100 is worth $170 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1982/