$100 in 1980 is worth $265 in 2010,
because prices increased 164.6% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$265
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
164.6%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$265
Price difference ($100 base)
$165
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1980 → 2010
$265
$100 in 2010 → 1980
$37.79
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2010
Between 1980 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 164.6%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.38 buys in 2010: the 1980 dollar
lost 62.2% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2010 at the same ratio, 2.65: $1,000 becomes
$2,646, and $10,000 becomes $26,463.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2010
$1.00
$2.65
$5.00
$13.23
$10.00
$26.46
$20.00
$52.93
$50.00
$132
$100
$265
$500
$1,323
$1,000
$2,646
$5,000
$13,232
$10,000
$26,463
$100,000
$264,631
$1,000,000
$2,646,311
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2010
Between 1980 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 418.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 31.5%, against 164.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$265
Medical care
5.64%
$519
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.42%
$274
Housing
3.32%
$267
Food
3.14%
$253
Energy
3.04%
$246
Transportation
2.86%
$233
Apparel
0.92%
$131
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$265
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $185 by
1995, on its way to $265 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $265; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2010: $100 is worth $265 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2010/