$100 in 1981 is worth $236 in 2009,
because prices increased 136.0% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$236
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.0%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$236
Price difference ($100 base)
$136
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1981 → 2009
$236
$100 in 2009 → 1981
$42.37
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2009
Between 1981 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.0%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2009: the 1981 dollar
lost 57.6% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 2009 at the same ratio, 2.36: $1,000 becomes
$2,360, and $10,000 becomes $23,601.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2009
$1.00
$2.36
$5.00
$11.80
$10.00
$23.60
$20.00
$47.20
$50.00
$118
$100
$236
$500
$1,180
$1,000
$2,360
$5,000
$11,801
$10,000
$23,601
$100,000
$236,014
$1,000,000
$2,360,143
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2009
Between 1981 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 353.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.0%, against 136.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$236
Medical care
5.54%
$453
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.26%
$246
Housing
3.18%
$240
Food
3.06%
$233
Energy
2.46%
$198
Transportation
2.36%
$192
Apparel
0.83%
$126
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$236
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $168 by
1995, on its way to $236 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $236; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2009: $100 is worth $236 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2009/