$100 in 1980 is worth $329 in 2021,
because prices increased 228.8% over that period, an average of
2.95% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$329
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
228.8%
Average inflation rate
2.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$329
Price difference ($100 base)
$229
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1980 → 2021
$329
$100 in 2021 → 1980
$30.41
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2021
Between 1980 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 228.8%, which works out to an average of
2.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.30 buys in 2021: the 1980 dollar
lost 69.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2021 at the same ratio, 3.29: $1,000 becomes
$3,288, and $10,000 becomes $32,885.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2021
$1.00
$3.29
$5.00
$16.44
$10.00
$32.88
$20.00
$65.77
$50.00
$164
$100
$329
$500
$1,644
$1,000
$3,288
$5,000
$16,442
$10,000
$32,885
$100,000
$328,847
$1,000,000
$3,288,471
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2021
Between 1980 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 601.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 33.1%, against 228.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.95%
$329
Medical care
4.87%
$701
Housing
3.07%
$346
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.05%
$343
Food
2.88%
$320
Transportation
2.52%
$278
Energy
2.52%
$277
Apparel
0.70%
$133
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.72% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$314
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$329
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $209 by
2000, on its way to $329 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $329; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2021: $100 is worth $329 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2021/