$100 in 1982 is worth $202 in 2005,
because prices increased 102.4% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.4%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1982 → 2005
$202
$100 in 2005 → 1982
$49.41
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2005
Between 1982 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.4%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.49 buys in 2005: the 1982 dollar
lost 50.6% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 2005 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,024, and $10,000 becomes $20,238.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2005
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.12
$10.00
$20.24
$20.00
$40.48
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,012
$1,000
$2,024
$5,000
$10,119
$10,000
$20,238
$100,000
$202,383
$1,000,000
$2,023,834
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2005
Between 1982 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 249.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 22.2%, against 102.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$202
Medical care
5.59%
$349
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.27%
$210
Housing
3.10%
$202
Food
2.96%
$196
Transportation
2.57%
$179
Energy
2.55%
$179
Apparel
0.88%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $150 by
1993, on its way to $202 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2005: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2005/