$100 in 1982 is worth $226 in 2010,
because prices increased 126.0% over that period, an average of
2.95% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$226
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
126.0%
Average inflation rate
2.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$226
Price difference ($100 base)
$126
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1982 → 2010
$226
$100 in 2010 → 1982
$44.25
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2010
Between 1982 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 126.0%, which works out to an average of
2.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.44 buys in 2010: the 1982 dollar
lost 55.7% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 2010 at the same ratio, 2.26: $1,000 becomes
$2,260, and $10,000 becomes $22,596.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2010
$1.00
$2.26
$5.00
$11.30
$10.00
$22.60
$20.00
$45.19
$50.00
$113
$100
$226
$500
$1,130
$1,000
$2,260
$5,000
$11,298
$10,000
$22,596
$100,000
$225,965
$1,000,000
$2,259,648
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2010
Between 1982 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 319.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 22.2%, against 126.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.95%
$226
Medical care
5.26%
$420
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.04%
$231
Food
2.95%
$225
Housing
2.91%
$223
Energy
2.74%
$213
Transportation
2.50%
$199
Apparel
0.72%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$226
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $163 by
1996, on its way to $226 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $226; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2010: $100 is worth $226 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2010/