$100 in 1980 is worth $288 in 2015,
because prices increased 187.6% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$288
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
187.6%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$288
Price difference ($100 base)
$188
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1980 → 2015
$288
$100 in 2015 → 1980
$34.77
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2015
Between 1980 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 187.6%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.35 buys in 2015: the 1980 dollar
lost 65.2% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2015 at the same ratio, 2.88: $1,000 becomes
$2,876, and $10,000 becomes $28,764.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2015
$1.00
$2.88
$5.00
$14.38
$10.00
$28.76
$20.00
$57.53
$50.00
$144
$100
$288
$500
$1,438
$1,000
$2,876
$5,000
$14,382
$10,000
$28,764
$100,000
$287,642
$1,000,000
$2,876,420
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2015
Between 1980 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 496.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 38.5%, against 187.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$288
Medical care
5.23%
$596
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.19%
$300
Housing
3.12%
$294
Food
3.04%
$285
Transportation
2.53%
$240
Energy
2.48%
$236
Apparel
0.94%
$139
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$288
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $198 by
1998, on its way to $288 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $288; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2015: $100 is worth $288 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2015/