Between 1980 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 75.4%, which works out to an average of
4.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1993.
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 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.42%
$175
Medical care
7.91%
$269
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.99%
$188
Housing
4.36%
$174
Food
3.80%
$162
Transportation
3.53%
$157
Apparel
3.01%
$147
Energy
1.49%
$121
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 1993: $100 is worth $175 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1993/