$100 in 1977 is worth $164 in 1983,
because prices increased 64.4% over that period, an average of
8.63% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$164
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
64.4%
Average inflation rate
8.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$164
Price difference ($100 base)
$64.36
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1977 → 1983
$164
$100 in 1983 → 1977
$60.84
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1983
Between 1977 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 64.4%, which works out to an average of
8.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1983: the 1977 dollar
lost 39.2% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1983 at the same ratio, 1.64: $1,000 becomes
$1,644, and $10,000 becomes $16,436.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1983
$1.00
$1.64
$5.00
$8.22
$10.00
$16.44
$20.00
$32.87
$50.00
$82.18
$100
$164
$500
$822
$1,000
$1,644
$5,000
$8,218
$10,000
$16,436
$100,000
$164,356
$1,000,000
$1,643,564
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1983
Between 1977 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 102.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 27.5%, against 64.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.63%
$164
Energy
12.45%
$202
Medical care
9.93%
$176
Housing
9.60%
$173
Transportation
9.06%
$168
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.51%
$163
Food
7.20%
$152
Apparel
4.13%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (6.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–1983 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$164
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $136 by
1980, on its way to $164 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 1977 had the buying
power of $164; 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 1977 to 1983: $100 is worth $164 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1983/