$100 in 1977 is worth $171 in 1984,
because prices increased 71.5% over that period, an average of
8.01% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
71.5%
Average inflation rate
8.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$71.45
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1977 → 1984
$171
$100 in 1984 → 1977
$58.33
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1984
Between 1977 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 71.5%, which works out to an average of
8.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1984: the 1977 dollar
lost 41.7% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1984 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,715, and $10,000 becomes $17,145.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1984
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.57
$10.00
$17.15
$20.00
$34.29
$50.00
$85.73
$100
$171
$500
$857
$1,000
$1,715
$5,000
$8,573
$10,000
$17,145
$100,000
$171,452
$1,000,000
$1,714,521
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1984
Between 1977 and 1984, energy rose the most, up 104.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 29.9%, against 71.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.01%
$171
Energy
10.74%
$204
Medical care
9.38%
$187
Housing
8.80%
$180
Transportation
8.39%
$176
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.01%
$171
Food
6.71%
$158
Apparel
3.81%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (5.97% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–1984 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $136 by
1980, on its way to $171 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 1984: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1984/