$100 in 1980 is worth $229 in 2004,
because prices increased 129.2% over that period, an average of
3.52% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$229
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
129.2%
Average inflation rate
3.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$229
Price difference ($100 base)
$129
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1980 → 2004
$229
$100 in 2004 → 1980
$43.62
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2004
Between 1980 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 129.2%, which works out to an average of
3.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.44 buys in 2004: the 1980 dollar
lost 56.4% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2004 at the same ratio, 2.29: $1,000 becomes
$2,292, and $10,000 becomes $22,925.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2004
$1.00
$2.29
$5.00
$11.46
$10.00
$22.92
$20.00
$45.85
$50.00
$115
$100
$229
$500
$1,146
$1,000
$2,292
$5,000
$11,462
$10,000
$22,925
$100,000
$229,248
$1,000,000
$2,292,476
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2004
Between 1980 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 314.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 32.5%, against 129.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.52%
$229
Medical care
6.10%
$414
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.77%
$243
Housing
3.60%
$234
Food
3.23%
$215
Transportation
2.85%
$196
Energy
2.38%
$176
Apparel
1.18%
$132
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$229
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $170 by
1992, on its way to $229 in 2004; 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 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $229; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2004: $100 is worth $229 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2004/