$100 in 1977 is worth $205 in 1989,
because prices increased 104.6% over that period, an average of
6.15% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
104.6%
Average inflation rate
6.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1977 → 1989
$205
$100 in 1989 → 1977
$48.87
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1989
Between 1977 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 104.6%, which works out to an average of
6.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1989: the 1977 dollar
lost 51.1% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1989 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,046, and $10,000 becomes $20,462.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1989
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.23
$10.00
$20.46
$20.00
$40.92
$50.00
$102
$100
$205
$500
$1,023
$1,000
$2,046
$5,000
$10,231
$10,000
$20,462
$100,000
$204,620
$1,000,000
$2,046,205
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1989
Between 1977 and 1989, medical care rose the most, up 161.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 50.9%, against 104.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.15%
$205
Medical care
8.35%
$262
Housing
6.56%
$214
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.44%
$211
Transportation
5.65%
$193
Food
5.54%
$191
Energy
5.54%
$191
Apparel
3.49%
$151
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 1989
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.65% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–1989 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $164 by
1983, on its way to $205 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 1977 had the buying
power of $205; 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 1977 to 1989: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1989/