$100 in 1982 is worth $145 in 1992,
because prices increased 45.4% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
45.4%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$45.39
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1982 → 1992
$145
$100 in 1992 → 1982
$68.78
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1992
Between 1982 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 45.4%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1992: the 1982 dollar
lost 31.2% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1992 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,454, and $10,000 becomes $14,539.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1992
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.27
$10.00
$14.54
$20.00
$29.08
$50.00
$72.69
$100
$145
$500
$727
$1,000
$1,454
$5,000
$7,269
$10,000
$14,539
$100,000
$145,389
$1,000,000
$1,453,886
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1992
Between 1982 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 105.5%, while energy rose the least, up 3.8%, against 45.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$145
Medical care
7.47%
$206
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.40%
$154
Housing
3.56%
$142
Food
3.54%
$142
Apparel
3.04%
$135
Transportation
2.69%
$130
Energy
0.38%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 1992
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–1992 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $118 by
1987, on its way to $145 in 1992; 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 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $145; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1992: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1992/