$100 in 1980 is worth $223 in 2003,
because prices increased 123.3% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$223
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
123.3%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$223
Price difference ($100 base)
$123
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1980 → 2003
$223
$100 in 2003 → 1980
$44.78
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2003
Between 1980 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 123.3%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.45 buys in 2003: the 1980 dollar
lost 55.2% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 2003 at the same ratio, 2.23: $1,000 becomes
$2,233, and $10,000 becomes $22,330.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2003
$1.00
$2.23
$5.00
$11.17
$10.00
$22.33
$20.00
$44.66
$50.00
$112
$100
$223
$500
$1,117
$1,000
$2,233
$5,000
$11,165
$10,000
$22,330
$100,000
$223,301
$1,000,000
$2,233,010
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2003
Between 1980 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 296.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 33.0%, against 123.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$223
Medical care
6.17%
$397
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.86%
$239
Housing
3.65%
$228
Food
3.22%
$207
Transportation
2.82%
$190
Energy
2.03%
$159
Apparel
1.25%
$133
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2003 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1980, at end
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$159
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$209
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$223
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $165 by
1991, on its way to $223 in 2003; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $223; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2003: $100 is worth $223 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2003/