$100 in 1982 is worth $118 in 1987,
because prices increased 17.7% over that period, an average of
3.32% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$118
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
17.7%
Average inflation rate
3.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$118
Price difference ($100 base)
$17.72
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1982 → 1987
$118
$100 in 1987 → 1982
$84.95
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1987
Between 1982 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 17.7%, which works out to an average of
3.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.85 buys in 1987: the 1982 dollar
lost 15.1% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
Every 1982 amount converts to 1987 at the same ratio, 1.18: $1,000 becomes
$1,177, and $10,000 becomes $11,772.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1987
$1.00
$1.18
$5.00
$5.89
$10.00
$11.77
$20.00
$23.54
$50.00
$58.86
$100
$118
$500
$589
$1,000
$1,177
$5,000
$5,886
$10,000
$11,772
$100,000
$117,720
$1,000,000
$1,177,202
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1987
Between 1982 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 40.6%, while energy fell 10.7%, against 17.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.32%
$118
Medical care
7.06%
$141
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.29%
$123
Housing
3.34%
$118
Food
3.11%
$117
Apparel
2.49%
$113
Transportation
1.67%
$109
Energy
-2.23%
$89.31
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $108 by
1984, on its way to $118 in 1987; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.3% in 1984, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $118; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1987: $100 is worth $118 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1987/