$100 in 1981 is worth $247 in 2011,
because prices increased 147.5% over that period, an average of
3.07% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$247
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
147.5%
Average inflation rate
3.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$247
Price difference ($100 base)
$147
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1981 → 2011
$247
$100 in 2011 → 1981
$40.41
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2011
Between 1981 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 147.5%, which works out to an average of
3.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.40 buys in 2011: the 1981 dollar
lost 59.6% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2011 at the same ratio, 2.47: $1,000 becomes
$2,475, and $10,000 becomes $24,746.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2011
$1.00
$2.47
$5.00
$12.37
$10.00
$24.75
$20.00
$49.49
$50.00
$124
$100
$247
$500
$1,237
$1,000
$2,475
$5,000
$12,373
$10,000
$24,746
$100,000
$247,458
$1,000,000
$2,474,576
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2011
Between 1981 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 382.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 28.1%, against 147.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.07%
$247
Medical care
5.39%
$483
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.13%
$252
Energy
3.10%
$250
Food
3.01%
$243
Housing
2.99%
$242
Transportation
2.78%
$228
Apparel
0.83%
$128
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$240
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$247
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $173 by
1996, on its way to $247 in 2011; 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 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $247; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2011: $100 is worth $247 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2011/