$100 in 1981 is worth $298 in 2021,
because prices increased 198.1% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1981 has
the same buying power as
$298
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
198.1%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$298
Price difference ($100 base)
$198
CPI in 1981
90.9
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1981 → 2021
$298
$100 in 2021 → 1981
$33.55
What happened to prices between 1981 and 2021
Between 1981 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 198.1%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.34 buys in 2021: the 1981 dollar
lost 66.5% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2021 at the same ratio, 2.98: $1,000 becomes
$2,981, and $10,000 becomes $29,810.
Amount in 1981
Value in 2021
$1.00
$2.98
$5.00
$14.90
$10.00
$29.81
$20.00
$59.62
$50.00
$149
$100
$298
$500
$1,490
$1,000
$2,981
$5,000
$14,905
$10,000
$29,810
$100,000
$298,097
$1,000,000
$2,980,968
Inflation by spending category, 1981–2021
Between 1981 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 533.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 27.0%, against 198.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1981
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$298
Medical care
4.72%
$634
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.88%
$311
Housing
2.87%
$311
Food
2.76%
$297
Transportation
2.29%
$247
Energy
2.25%
$244
Apparel
0.60%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1981 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1981–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$298
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1981
$100 from 1981 had already become $195 by
2001, on its way to $298 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1981 had the buying
power of $298; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2021: $100 is worth $298 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2021/