$100 in 1980 is worth $133 in 1986,
because prices increased 33.0% over that period, an average of
4.87% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.0%
Average inflation rate
4.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.01
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1980 → 1986
$133
$100 in 1986 → 1980
$75.18
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1986
Between 1980 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.0%, which works out to an average of
4.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1986: the 1980 dollar
lost 24.8% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1986 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,330, and $10,000 becomes $13,301.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1986
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.65
$10.00
$13.30
$20.00
$26.60
$50.00
$66.50
$100
$133
$500
$665
$1,000
$1,330
$5,000
$6,650
$10,000
$13,301
$100,000
$133,010
$1,000,000
$1,330,097
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1986
Between 1980 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 62.9%, while energy rose the least, up 2.6%, against 33.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.87%
$133
Medical care
8.47%
$163
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.83%
$140
Housing
5.35%
$137
Food
3.87%
$126
Transportation
3.53%
$123
Apparel
2.58%
$117
Energy
0.42%
$103
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 $121 by
1983, on its way to $133 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $133; 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 1980 to 1986: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1986/