$100 in 1980 is worth $170 in 1992,
because prices increased 70.3% over that period, an average of
4.53% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$170
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.3%
Average inflation rate
4.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$170
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.27
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1980 → 1992
$170
$100 in 1992 → 1980
$58.73
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1992
Between 1980 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.3%, which works out to an average of
4.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1992: the 1980 dollar
lost 41.3% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1992 at the same ratio, 1.70: $1,000 becomes
$1,703, and $10,000 becomes $17,027.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1992
$1.00
$1.70
$5.00
$8.51
$10.00
$17.03
$20.00
$34.05
$50.00
$85.13
$100
$170
$500
$851
$1,000
$1,703
$5,000
$8,513
$10,000
$17,027
$100,000
$170,267
$1,000,000
$1,702,670
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1992
Between 1980 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 153.8%, while energy rose the least, up 19.8%, against 70.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.53%
$170
Medical care
8.07%
$254
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.13%
$182
Housing
4.50%
$170
Food
3.93%
$159
Transportation
3.56%
$152
Apparel
3.15%
$145
Energy
1.51%
$120
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 1992
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–1992 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1980, at end
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$159
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$170
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $133 by
1986, on its way to $170 in 1992; 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 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $170; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 1992: $100 is worth $170 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1992/