$100 in 1982 is worth $166 in 1997,
because prices increased 66.3% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$166
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.3%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$166
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.32
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1982 → 1997
$166
$100 in 1997 → 1982
$60.12
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1997
Between 1982 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.3%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1997: the 1982 dollar
lost 39.9% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1997 at the same ratio, 1.66: $1,000 becomes
$1,663, and $10,000 becomes $16,632.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1997
$1.00
$1.66
$5.00
$8.32
$10.00
$16.63
$20.00
$33.26
$50.00
$83.16
$100
$166
$500
$832
$1,000
$1,663
$5,000
$8,316
$10,000
$16,632
$100,000
$166,321
$1,000,000
$1,663,212
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1997
Between 1982 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 153.6%, while energy rose the least, up 12.4%, against 66.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$166
Medical care
6.40%
$254
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.88%
$177
Housing
3.26%
$162
Food
3.25%
$161
Transportation
2.68%
$149
Apparel
2.07%
$136
Energy
0.78%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–1997 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$166
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $128 by
1989, on its way to $166 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $166; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1997: $100 is worth $166 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1997/