$100 in 1977 is worth $159 in 1982,
because prices increased 59.2% over that period, an average of
9.75% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$159
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.2%
Average inflation rate
9.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$159
Price difference ($100 base)
$59.24
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1977 → 1982
$159
$100 in 1982 → 1977
$62.80
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1982
Between 1977 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.2%, which works out to an average of
9.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1982: the 1977 dollar
lost 37.2% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
Every 1977 amount converts to 1982 at the same ratio, 1.59: $1,000 becomes
$1,592, and $10,000 becomes $15,924.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1982
$1.00
$1.59
$5.00
$7.96
$10.00
$15.92
$20.00
$31.85
$50.00
$79.62
$100
$159
$500
$796
$1,000
$1,592
$5,000
$7,962
$10,000
$15,924
$100,000
$159,241
$1,000,000
$1,592,409
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1982
Between 1977 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 100.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 24.4%, against 59.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.75%
$159
Energy
14.96%
$201
Housing
11.04%
$169
Transportation
10.45%
$164
Medical care
10.17%
$162
Core (all items less food & energy)
9.45%
$157
Food
8.26%
$149
Apparel
4.47%
$124
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (8.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$159
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $120 by
1979, on its way to $159 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 1977 had the buying
power of $159; 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 1977 to 1982: $100 is worth $159 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1982/