$100 in 1981 is worth $202 in 2003,
because prices increased 102.4% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.4%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1981 → 2003
$202
$100 in 2003 → 1981
$49.40
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2003
Between 1981 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.4%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.49 buys in 2003: the 1981 dollar
lost 50.6% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 2003 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,024, and $10,000 becomes $20,242.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2003
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.12
$10.00
$20.24
$20.00
$40.48
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,012
$1,000
$2,024
$5,000
$10,121
$10,000
$20,242
$100,000
$202,420
$1,000,000
$2,024,202
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2003
Between 1981 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 258.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.9%, against 102.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$202
Medical care
5.97%
$358
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.58%
$217
Housing
3.30%
$204
Food
3.02%
$192
Transportation
2.42%
$169
Energy
1.53%
$140
Apparel
1.09%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2003 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1981, at end
1981–1990
4.12%
43.8%
$144
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$189
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $154 by
1992, on its way to $202 in 2003; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2003: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2003/