$100 in 1982 is worth $158 in 1995,
because prices increased 57.9% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$158
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.9%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$158
Price difference ($100 base)
$57.93
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1982 → 1995
$158
$100 in 1995 → 1982
$63.32
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1995
Between 1982 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.9%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1995: the 1982 dollar
lost 36.7% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1995 at the same ratio, 1.58: $1,000 becomes
$1,579, and $10,000 becomes $15,793.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1995
$1.00
$1.58
$5.00
$7.90
$10.00
$15.79
$20.00
$31.59
$50.00
$78.96
$100
$158
$500
$790
$1,000
$1,579
$5,000
$7,896
$10,000
$15,793
$100,000
$157,927
$1,000,000
$1,579,275
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1995
Between 1982 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 138.4%, while energy rose the least, up 6.0%, against 57.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$158
Medical care
6.91%
$238
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.08%
$168
Housing
3.34%
$153
Food
3.29%
$152
Transportation
2.81%
$143
Apparel
2.33%
$135
Energy
0.45%
$106
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–1995 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$158
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $123 by
1988, on its way to $158 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $158; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1995: $100 is worth $158 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1995/