$100 in 1982 is worth $169 in 1998,
because prices increased 68.9% over that period, an average of
3.33% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$169
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
68.9%
Average inflation rate
3.33% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$169
Price difference ($100 base)
$68.91
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1982 → 1998
$169
$100 in 1998 → 1982
$59.20
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1998
Between 1982 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 68.9%, which works out to an average of
3.33% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1998: the 1982 dollar
lost 40.8% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1998 at the same ratio, 1.69: $1,000 becomes
$1,689, and $10,000 becomes $16,891.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1998
$1.00
$1.69
$5.00
$8.45
$10.00
$16.89
$20.00
$33.78
$50.00
$84.46
$100
$169
$500
$845
$1,000
$1,689
$5,000
$8,446
$10,000
$16,891
$100,000
$168,912
$1,000,000
$1,689,119
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1998
Between 1982 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 161.7%, while energy rose the least, up 3.7%, against 68.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.33%
$169
Medical care
6.20%
$262
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.78%
$181
Housing
3.20%
$166
Food
3.18%
$165
Transportation
2.39%
$146
Apparel
1.94%
$136
Energy
0.23%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–1998 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$169
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $135 by
1990, on its way to $169 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $169; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1998: $100 is worth $169 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1998/