$100 in 1980 is worth $237 in 2005,
because prices increased 137.0% over that period, an average of
3.51% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$237
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
137.0%
Average inflation rate
3.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$237
Price difference ($100 base)
$137
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1980 → 2005
$237
$100 in 2005 → 1980
$42.19
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2005
Between 1980 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 137.0%, which works out to an average of
3.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2005: the 1980 dollar
lost 57.8% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 2005 at the same ratio, 2.37: $1,000 becomes
$2,370, and $10,000 becomes $23,701.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2005
$1.00
$2.37
$5.00
$11.85
$10.00
$23.70
$20.00
$47.40
$50.00
$119
$100
$237
$500
$1,185
$1,000
$2,370
$5,000
$11,851
$10,000
$23,701
$100,000
$237,015
$1,000,000
$2,370,146
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2005
Between 1980 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 331.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 31.5%, against 137.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.51%
$237
Medical care
6.02%
$432
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.71%
$249
Housing
3.59%
$241
Food
3.20%
$220
Transportation
3.00%
$209
Energy
2.93%
$206
Apparel
1.10%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$237
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $170 by
1992, on its way to $237 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $237; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2005: $100 is worth $237 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2005/