$100 in 1982 is worth $215 in 2007,
because prices increased 114.9% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
114.9%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1982 → 2007
$215
$100 in 2007 → 1982
$46.54
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2007
Between 1982 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 114.9%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.47 buys in 2007: the 1982 dollar
lost 53.5% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 2007 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,149, and $10,000 becomes $21,486.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2007
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.74
$10.00
$21.49
$20.00
$42.97
$50.00
$107
$100
$215
$500
$1,074
$1,000
$2,149
$5,000
$10,743
$10,000
$21,486
$100,000
$214,862
$1,000,000
$2,148,622
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2007
Between 1982 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 279.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 21.7%, against 114.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$215
Medical care
5.48%
$380
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.20%
$220
Housing
3.13%
$216
Energy
3.00%
$209
Food
2.98%
$208
Transportation
2.61%
$190
Apparel
0.79%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $154 by
1994, on its way to $215 in 2007; 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 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $215; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2007: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2007/