$100 in 1977 is worth $181 in 1986,
because prices increased 80.9% over that period, an average of
6.81% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$181
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.9%
Average inflation rate
6.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$181
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.86
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1977 → 1986
$181
$100 in 1986 → 1977
$55.29
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1986
Between 1977 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.9%, which works out to an average of
6.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.55 buys in 1986: the 1977 dollar
lost 44.7% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1986 at the same ratio, 1.81: $1,000 becomes
$1,809, and $10,000 becomes $18,086.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1986
$1.00
$1.81
$5.00
$9.04
$10.00
$18.09
$20.00
$36.17
$50.00
$90.43
$100
$181
$500
$904
$1,000
$1,809
$5,000
$9,043
$10,000
$18,086
$100,000
$180,858
$1,000,000
$1,808,581
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1986
Between 1977 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 114.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 34.7%, against 80.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.81%
$181
Medical care
8.82%
$214
Housing
7.59%
$193
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.14%
$186
Energy
6.65%
$179
Transportation
6.31%
$173
Food
5.82%
$166
Apparel
3.37%
$135
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$181
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $150 by
1981, on its way to $181 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $181; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 1986: $100 is worth $181 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1986/