$100 in 1980 is worth $165 in 1991,
because prices increased 65.3% over that period, an average of
4.67% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$165
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
65.3%
Average inflation rate
4.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$165
Price difference ($100 base)
$65.29
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1980 → 1991
$165
$100 in 1991 → 1980
$60.50
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1991
Between 1980 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 65.3%, which works out to an average of
4.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1991: the 1980 dollar
lost 39.5% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1991 at the same ratio, 1.65: $1,000 becomes
$1,653, and $10,000 becomes $16,529.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1991
$1.00
$1.65
$5.00
$8.26
$10.00
$16.53
$20.00
$33.06
$50.00
$82.65
$100
$165
$500
$826
$1,000
$1,653
$5,000
$8,265
$10,000
$16,529
$100,000
$165,291
$1,000,000
$1,652,913
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1991
Between 1980 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 136.3%, while energy rose the least, up 19.2%, against 65.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.67%
$165
Medical care
8.13%
$236
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.27%
$176
Housing
4.64%
$165
Food
4.19%
$157
Transportation
3.69%
$149
Apparel
3.21%
$142
Energy
1.61%
$119
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1980, at end
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$159
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $131 by
1985, on its way to $165 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $165; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 1991: $100 is worth $165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1991/