$100 in 1982 is worth $184 in 2001,
because prices increased 83.5% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$184
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
83.5%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$184
Price difference ($100 base)
$83.52
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1982 → 2001
$184
$100 in 2001 → 1982
$54.49
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2001
Between 1982 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 83.5%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.54 buys in 2001: the 1982 dollar
lost 45.5% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 2001 at the same ratio, 1.84: $1,000 becomes
$1,835, and $10,000 becomes $18,352.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2001
$1.00
$1.84
$5.00
$9.18
$10.00
$18.35
$20.00
$36.70
$50.00
$91.76
$100
$184
$500
$918
$1,000
$1,835
$5,000
$9,176
$10,000
$18,352
$100,000
$183,523
$1,000,000
$1,835,233
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2001
Between 1982 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 194.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.2%, against 83.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$184
Medical care
5.86%
$295
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.56%
$194
Housing
3.20%
$182
Food
3.07%
$178
Transportation
2.47%
$159
Energy
1.40%
$130
Apparel
1.40%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2001
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 1982–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $141 by
1991, on its way to $184 in 2001; 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 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $184; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2001: $100 is worth $184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2001/