$100 in 1981 is worth $208 in 2004,
because prices increased 107.8% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$208
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
107.8%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$208
Price difference ($100 base)
$108
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1981 → 2004
$208
$100 in 2004 → 1981
$48.12
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2004
Between 1981 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 107.8%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.48 buys in 2004: the 1981 dollar
lost 51.9% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 2004 at the same ratio, 2.08: $1,000 becomes
$2,078, and $10,000 becomes $20,781.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2004
$1.00
$2.08
$5.00
$10.39
$10.00
$20.78
$20.00
$41.56
$50.00
$104
$100
$208
$500
$1,039
$1,000
$2,078
$5,000
$10,391
$10,000
$20,781
$100,000
$207,811
$1,000,000
$2,078,108
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2004
Between 1981 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 274.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.3%, against 107.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$208
Medical care
5.90%
$374
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.50%
$220
Housing
3.27%
$210
Food
3.04%
$199
Transportation
2.46%
$175
Energy
1.92%
$155
Apparel
1.02%
$126
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$208
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $154 by
1992, on its way to $208 in 2004; 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 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $208; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2004: $100 is worth $208 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2004/