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.
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.
The headline number is an average. Individual categories moved very differently over this
period. 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–).
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/