$100 in 1981 is worth $177 in 1997,
because prices increased 76.6% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$177
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
76.6%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$177
Price difference ($100 base)
$76.57
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1981 → 1997
$177
$100 in 1997 → 1981
$56.64
What happened to prices between 1981 and 1997
Between 1981 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 76.6%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1997: the 1981 dollar
lost 43.4% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1997 at the same ratio, 1.77: $1,000 becomes
$1,766, and $10,000 becomes $17,657.
Amount in 1981
Value in 1997
$1.00
$1.77
$5.00
$8.83
$10.00
$17.66
$20.00
$35.31
$50.00
$88.28
$100
$177
$500
$883
$1,000
$1,766
$5,000
$8,828
$10,000
$17,657
$100,000
$176,568
$1,000,000
$1,765,677
Inflation by spending category, 1981–1997
Between 1981 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 183.0%, while energy rose the least, up 14.1%, against 76.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$177
Medical care
6.72%
$283
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.09%
$190
Housing
3.50%
$173
Food
3.30%
$168
Transportation
2.77%
$155
Apparel
2.10%
$139
Energy
0.83%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–1997 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1981, at end
1981–1990
4.12%
43.8%
$144
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$177
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $136 by
1989, on its way to $177 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $177; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 1997: $100 is worth $177 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-1997/