$100 in 1981 is worth $163 in 1994,
because prices increased 63.0% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
63.0%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$63.04
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1981 → 1994
$163
$100 in 1994 → 1981
$61.34
What happened to prices between 1981 and 1994
Between 1981 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 63.0%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1994: the 1981 dollar
lost 38.7% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
Every 1981 amount converts to 1994 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,630, and $10,000 becomes $16,304.
Amount in 1981
Value in 1994
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.15
$10.00
$16.30
$20.00
$32.61
$50.00
$81.52
$100
$163
$500
$815
$1,000
$1,630
$5,000
$8,152
$10,000
$16,304
$100,000
$163,036
$1,000,000
$1,630,363
Inflation by spending category, 1981–1994
Between 1981 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 154.5%, while energy rose the least, up 7.1%, against 63.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$163
Medical care
7.45%
$255
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.42%
$175
Housing
3.69%
$160
Food
3.39%
$154
Transportation
2.85%
$144
Apparel
2.62%
$140
Energy
0.53%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–1994 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1981, at end
1981–1990
4.12%
43.8%
$144
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $125 by
1987, on its way to $163 in 1994; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1982, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 1994: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-1994/