$100 in 1980 is worth $121 in 1983,
because prices increased 20.9% over that period, an average of
6.52% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.9%
Average inflation rate
6.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.87
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1980 → 1983
$121
$100 in 1983 → 1980
$82.73
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1983
Between 1980 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.9%, which works out to an average of
6.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1983: the 1980 dollar
lost 17.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
Every 1980 amount converts to 1983 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,209, and $10,000 becomes $12,087.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1983
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.04
$10.00
$12.09
$20.00
$24.17
$50.00
$60.44
$100
$121
$500
$604
$1,000
$1,209
$5,000
$6,044
$10,000
$12,087
$100,000
$120,874
$1,000,000
$1,208,738
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1983
Between 1980 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 34.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 10.2%, against 20.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.52%
$121
Medical care
10.33%
$134
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.22%
$123
Housing
7.05%
$123
Transportation
6.12%
$119
Energy
5.12%
$116
Food
4.62%
$115
Apparel
3.30%
$110
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $110 by
1981, on its way to $121 in 1983; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.3% in 1981, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1983.
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $121; 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 1980 to 1983: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1983/