$100 in 1980 is worth $126 in 1984,
because prices increased 26.1% over that period, an average of
5.97% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$126
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.1%
Average inflation rate
5.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$126
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.09
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1980 → 1984
$126
$100 in 1984 → 1980
$79.31
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1984
Between 1980 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.1%, which works out to an average of
5.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1984: the 1980 dollar
lost 20.7% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1984 at the same ratio, 1.26: $1,000 becomes
$1,261, and $10,000 becomes $12,609.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1984
$1.00
$1.26
$5.00
$6.30
$10.00
$12.61
$20.00
$25.22
$50.00
$63.05
$100
$126
$500
$630
$1,000
$1,261
$5,000
$6,305
$10,000
$12,609
$100,000
$126,092
$1,000,000
$1,260,922
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1984
Between 1980 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 42.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.3%, against 26.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.97%
$126
Medical care
9.28%
$143
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.67%
$129
Housing
6.31%
$128
Transportation
5.69%
$125
Food
4.42%
$119
Energy
4.08%
$117
Apparel
2.95%
$112
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 $117 by
1982, on its way to $126 in 1984; 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 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $126; 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 1980 to 1984: $100 is worth $126 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1984/