$100 in 1976 is worth $218 in 1989,
because prices increased 117.9% over that period, an average of
6.18% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$218
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
117.9%
Average inflation rate
6.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$218
Price difference ($100 base)
$118
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1976 → 1989
$218
$100 in 1989 → 1976
$45.89
What happened to prices between 1976 and 1989
Between 1976 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 117.9%, which works out to an average of
6.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1989: the 1976 dollar
lost 54.1% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1989 at the same ratio, 2.18: $1,000 becomes
$2,179, and $10,000 becomes $21,793.
Amount in 1976
Value in 1989
$1.00
$2.18
$5.00
$10.90
$10.00
$21.79
$20.00
$43.59
$50.00
$109
$100
$218
$500
$1,090
$1,000
$2,179
$5,000
$10,896
$10,000
$21,793
$100,000
$217,926
$1,000,000
$2,179,262
Inflation by spending category, 1976–1989
Between 1976 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 187.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.7%, against 117.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.18%
$218
Medical care
8.45%
$287
Housing
6.57%
$229
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.43%
$225
Energy
5.84%
$209
Transportation
5.76%
$207
Food
5.60%
$203
Apparel
3.57%
$158
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1976 to 1989
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.70% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.65% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1976–1989 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1976, at end
1976–1980
9.70%
44.8%
$145
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$218
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $170 by
1982, on its way to $218 in 1989; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $218; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1976 to 1989: $100 is worth $218 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1989/