$100 in 1980 is worth $355 in 2022,
because prices increased 255.2% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$355
in 2022
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
255.2%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$355
Price difference ($100 base)
$255
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 2022
292.655
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 2022
8.00%
$100 in 1980 → 2022
$355
$100 in 2022 → 1980
$28.16
What happened to prices between 1980 and 2022
Between 1980 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 255.2%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.28 buys in 2022: the 1980 dollar
lost 71.8% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 2022 at the same ratio, 3.55: $1,000 becomes
$3,552, and $10,000 becomes $35,516.
Amount in 1980
Value in 2022
$1.00
$3.55
$5.00
$17.76
$10.00
$35.52
$20.00
$71.03
$50.00
$178
$100
$355
$500
$1,776
$1,000
$3,552
$5,000
$17,758
$10,000
$35,516
$100,000
$355,164
$1,000,000
$3,551,638
Inflation by spending category, 1980–2022
Between 1980 and 2022, medical care rose the most, up 629.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 39.8%, against 255.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$355
Medical care
4.85%
$730
Housing
3.17%
$371
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.13%
$364
Food
3.04%
$352
Energy
3.01%
$347
Transportation
2.81%
$320
Apparel
0.80%
$140
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1980 to 2022
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 6.34% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1980–2022 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
2020–2022
6.34%
13.1%
$355
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $209 by
2000, on its way to $355 in 2022; 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: 2022
In 2022, prices rose 8.0% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $355; the year's average CPI of 292.655 is the level
behind every 2022 figure on this page.
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1980 to 2022: $100 is worth $355 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-2022/