$100 in 1980 is worth $279 in 2012,
because prices increased 178.6% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$279
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
178.6%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$279
Price difference ($100 base)
$179
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1980 → 2012
$279
$100 in 2012 → 1980
$35.89
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2012
Between 1980 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 178.6%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.36 buys in 2012: the 1980 dollar
lost 64.1% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2012 at the same ratio, 2.79: $1,000 becomes
$2,786, and $10,000 becomes $27,863.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2012
$1.00
$2.79
$5.00
$13.93
$10.00
$27.86
$20.00
$55.73
$50.00
$139
$100
$279
$500
$1,393
$1,000
$2,786
$5,000
$13,932
$10,000
$27,863
$100,000
$278,633
$1,000,000
$2,786,335
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2012
Between 1980 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 454.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 38.9%, against 178.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$279
Medical care
5.50%
$554
Energy
3.34%
$286
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.32%
$284
Housing
3.21%
$275
Food
3.14%
$269
Transportation
3.05%
$262
Apparel
1.03%
$139
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2012
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 1980–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$279
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $190 by
1996, on its way to $279 in 2012; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $279; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2012: $100 is worth $279 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2012/