$100 in 1981 is worth $215 in 2005,
because prices increased 114.9% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
114.9%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1981 → 2005
$215
$100 in 2005 → 1981
$46.54
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2005
Between 1981 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 114.9%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.47 buys in 2005: the 1981 dollar
lost 53.5% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2005 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,149, and $10,000 becomes $21,485.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2005
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.74
$10.00
$21.49
$20.00
$42.97
$50.00
$107
$100
$215
$500
$1,074
$1,000
$2,149
$5,000
$10,743
$10,000
$21,485
$100,000
$214,851
$1,000,000
$2,148,515
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2005
Between 1981 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 289.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 25.4%, against 114.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$215
Medical care
5.83%
$390
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.44%
$225
Housing
3.27%
$216
Food
3.01%
$204
Transportation
2.63%
$187
Energy
2.51%
$181
Apparel
0.95%
$125
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $159 by
1993, on its way to $215 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $215; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2005: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2005/