$100 in 1980 is worth $252 in 2007,
because prices increased 151.6% over that period, an average of
3.48% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$252
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
151.6%
Average inflation rate
3.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$252
Price difference ($100 base)
$152
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1980 → 2007
$252
$100 in 2007 → 1980
$39.74
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2007
Between 1980 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 151.6%, which works out to an average of
3.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.40 buys in 2007: the 1980 dollar
lost 60.3% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 2007 at the same ratio, 2.52: $1,000 becomes
$2,516, and $10,000 becomes $25,163.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2007
$1.00
$2.52
$5.00
$12.58
$10.00
$25.16
$20.00
$50.33
$50.00
$126
$100
$252
$500
$1,258
$1,000
$2,516
$5,000
$12,581
$10,000
$25,163
$100,000
$251,629
$1,000,000
$2,516,286
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2007
Between 1980 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 368.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.9%, against 151.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.48%
$252
Medical care
5.89%
$469
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.61%
$261
Housing
3.58%
$258
Energy
3.32%
$242
Food
3.20%
$234
Transportation
3.00%
$222
Apparel
1.00%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$252
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $175 by
1993, on its way to $252 in 2007; 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 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $252; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2007: $100 is worth $252 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2007/