$100 in 1982 is worth $173 in 1999,
because prices increased 72.6% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.6%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.64
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1982 → 1999
$173
$100 in 1999 → 1982
$57.92
What happened to prices between 1982 and 1999
Between 1982 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.6%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1999: the 1982 dollar
lost 42.1% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1999 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,726, and $10,000 becomes $17,264.
Amount in 1982
Value in 1999
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.63
$10.00
$17.26
$20.00
$34.53
$50.00
$86.32
$100
$173
$500
$863
$1,000
$1,726
$5,000
$8,632
$10,000
$17,264
$100,000
$172,642
$1,000,000
$1,726,425
Inflation by spending category, 1982–1999
Between 1982 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 170.9%, while energy rose the least, up 7.5%, against 72.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$173
Medical care
6.04%
$271
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.68%
$185
Housing
3.14%
$169
Food
3.12%
$168
Transportation
2.37%
$149
Apparel
1.75%
$134
Energy
0.42%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $135 by
1990, on its way to $173 in 1999; 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 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $173; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 1999: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-1999/