$100 in 1981 is worth $285 in 2020,
because prices increased 184.7% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$285
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
184.7%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$285
Price difference ($100 base)
$185
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1981 → 2020
$285
$100 in 2020 → 1981
$35.12
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2020
Between 1981 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 184.7%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.35 buys in 2020: the 1981 dollar
lost 64.9% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2020 at the same ratio, 2.85: $1,000 becomes
$2,847, and $10,000 becomes $28,472.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2020
$1.00
$2.85
$5.00
$14.24
$10.00
$28.47
$20.00
$56.94
$50.00
$142
$100
$285
$500
$1,424
$1,000
$2,847
$5,000
$14,236
$10,000
$28,472
$100,000
$284,721
$1,000,000
$2,847,206
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2020
Between 1981 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 525.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 23.9%, against 184.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$285
Medical care
4.81%
$626
Housing
2.86%
$301
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.86%
$300
Food
2.73%
$285
Transportation
1.99%
$216
Energy
1.81%
$202
Apparel
0.55%
$124
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.12% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$285
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $195 by
2001, on its way to $285 in 2020; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $285; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2020: $100 is worth $285 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2020/