$100 in 1982 is worth $209 in 2006,
because prices increased 108.9% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$209
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
108.9%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$209
Price difference ($100 base)
$109
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1982 → 2006
$209
$100 in 2006 → 1982
$47.87
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2006
Between 1982 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 108.9%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.48 buys in 2006: the 1982 dollar
lost 52.1% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2006 at the same ratio, 2.09: $1,000 becomes
$2,089, and $10,000 becomes $20,891.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2006
$1.00
$2.09
$5.00
$10.45
$10.00
$20.89
$20.00
$41.78
$50.00
$104
$100
$209
$500
$1,045
$1,000
$2,089
$5,000
$10,446
$10,000
$20,891
$100,000
$208,912
$1,000,000
$2,089,119
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2006
Between 1982 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 263.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 22.2%, against 108.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$209
Medical care
5.52%
$363
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.24%
$215
Housing
3.13%
$210
Food
2.94%
$200
Energy
2.90%
$198
Transportation
2.63%
$186
Apparel
0.84%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$209
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $154 by
1994, on its way to $209 in 2006; 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 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $209; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2006: $100 is worth $209 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2006/