$100 in 1982 is worth $141 in 1991,
because prices increased 41.1% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
41.1%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$41.14
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1982 → 1991
$141
$100 in 1991 → 1982
$70.85
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1991
Between 1982 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 41.1%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1991: the 1982 dollar
lost 29.1% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1991 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,411, and $10,000 becomes $14,114.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1991
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.06
$10.00
$14.11
$20.00
$28.23
$50.00
$70.57
$100
$141
$500
$706
$1,000
$1,411
$5,000
$7,057
$10,000
$14,114
$100,000
$141,140
$1,000,000
$1,411,399
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1991
Between 1982 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 91.4%, while energy rose the least, up 3.3%, against 41.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$141
Medical care
7.48%
$191
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.48%
$148
Food
3.80%
$140
Housing
3.63%
$138
Apparel
3.10%
$132
Transportation
2.75%
$128
Energy
0.36%
$103
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 4.21% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (3.86% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $114 by
1986, on its way to $141 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $141; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1991: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1991/