$100 in 1982 is worth $178 in 2000,
because prices increased 78.4% over that period, an average of
3.27% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$178
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.4%
Average inflation rate
3.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$178
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.45
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1982 → 2000
$178
$100 in 2000 → 1982
$56.04
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2000
Between 1982 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.4%, which works out to an average of
3.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.56 buys in 2000: the 1982 dollar
lost 44.0% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 2000 at the same ratio, 1.78: $1,000 becomes
$1,784, and $10,000 becomes $17,845.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2000
$1.00
$1.78
$5.00
$8.92
$10.00
$17.84
$20.00
$35.69
$50.00
$89.22
$100
$178
$500
$892
$1,000
$1,784
$5,000
$8,922
$10,000
$17,845
$100,000
$178,446
$1,000,000
$1,784,456
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2000
Between 1982 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 181.9%, while energy rose the least, up 25.6%, against 78.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.27%
$178
Medical care
5.93%
$282
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.61%
$189
Housing
3.16%
$175
Food
3.07%
$172
Transportation
2.58%
$158
Apparel
1.58%
$133
Energy
1.27%
$126
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2000
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 1982–2000 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1982, at end
1982–1990
3.86%
35.4%
$135
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$178
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $141 by
1991, on its way to $178 in 2000; 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 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $178; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2000: $100 is worth $178 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2000/