$100 in 1980 is worth $195 in 1997,
because prices increased 94.8% over that period, an average of
4.00% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$195
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
94.8%
Average inflation rate
4.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$195
Price difference ($100 base)
$94.78
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1980 → 1997
$195
$100 in 1997 → 1980
$51.34
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1997
Between 1980 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 94.8%, which works out to an average of
4.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1997: the 1980 dollar
lost 48.7% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1997 at the same ratio, 1.95: $1,000 becomes
$1,948, and $10,000 becomes $19,478.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1997
$1.00
$1.95
$5.00
$9.74
$10.00
$19.48
$20.00
$38.96
$50.00
$97.39
$100
$195
$500
$974
$1,000
$1,948
$5,000
$9,739
$10,000
$19,478
$100,000
$194,782
$1,000,000
$1,947,816
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1997
Between 1980 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 213.2%, while energy rose the least, up 29.7%, against 94.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.00%
$195
Medical care
6.95%
$313
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.45%
$210
Housing
3.95%
$193
Food
3.56%
$181
Transportation
3.30%
$174
Apparel
2.26%
$146
Energy
1.54%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–1997 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1980, at end
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$159
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $144 by
1988, on its way to $195 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $195; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 1997: $100 is worth $195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1997/