$100 in 1982 is worth $135 in 1990,
because prices increased 35.4% over that period, an average of
3.86% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.4%
Average inflation rate
3.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.44
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1982 → 1990
$135
$100 in 1990 → 1982
$73.83
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1990
Between 1982 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.4%, which works out to an average of
3.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1990: the 1982 dollar
lost 26.2% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1990 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,354, and $10,000 becomes $13,544.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1990
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.77
$10.00
$13.54
$20.00
$27.09
$50.00
$67.72
$100
$135
$500
$677
$1,000
$1,354
$5,000
$6,772
$10,000
$13,544
$100,000
$135,440
$1,000,000
$1,354,404
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1990
Between 1982 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 76.0%, while energy rose the least, up 2.9%, against 35.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.86%
$135
Medical care
7.32%
$176
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.43%
$141
Food
3.91%
$136
Housing
3.59%
$133
Apparel
3.02%
$127
Transportation
2.75%
$124
Energy
0.36%
$103
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 $114 by
1986, on its way to $135 in 1990; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.4% in 1990, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1990: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1990/