Between 1981 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 90.9 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 222.0%, which works out to an average of
2.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1981 bought what
$0.31 buys in 2022.
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.
The headline number is an average. Individual categories moved very differently over this
period. Here is what $100 of 1981 spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1981 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.89%
$322
Medical care
4.71%
$659
Housing
2.98%
$333
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.95%
$330
Food
2.93%
$326
Energy
2.76%
$305
Transportation
2.59%
$286
Apparel
0.70%
$133
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1981: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2022
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1981 to 2022: $100 is worth $322 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1981 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1981-to-2022/