$100 in 1982 is worth $186 in 2002,
because prices increased 86.4% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$186
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
86.4%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$186
Price difference ($100 base)
$86.42
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1982 → 2002
$186
$100 in 2002 → 1982
$53.64
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2002
Between 1982 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 86.4%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.54 buys in 2002: the 1982 dollar
lost 46.4% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 2002 at the same ratio, 1.86: $1,000 becomes
$1,864, and $10,000 becomes $18,642.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2002
$1.00
$1.86
$5.00
$9.32
$10.00
$18.64
$20.00
$37.28
$50.00
$93.21
$100
$186
$500
$932
$1,000
$1,864
$5,000
$9,321
$10,000
$18,642
$100,000
$186,425
$1,000,000
$1,864,249
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2002
Between 1982 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 208.8%, while energy rose the least, up 22.7%, against 86.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$186
Medical care
5.80%
$309
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.50%
$199
Housing
3.15%
$186
Food
3.01%
$181
Transportation
2.30%
$158
Apparel
1.19%
$127
Energy
1.03%
$123
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$186
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $145 by
1992, on its way to $186 in 2002; 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 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $186; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2002: $100 is worth $186 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2002/