$100 in 1982 is worth $238 in 2012,
because prices increased 137.9% over that period, an average of
2.93% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$238
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
137.9%
Average inflation rate
2.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$238
Price difference ($100 base)
$138
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1982 → 2012
$238
$100 in 2012 → 1982
$42.03
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2012
Between 1982 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 137.9%, which works out to an average of
2.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2012: the 1982 dollar
lost 58.0% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2012 at the same ratio, 2.38: $1,000 becomes
$2,379, and $10,000 becomes $23,792.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2012
$1.00
$2.38
$5.00
$11.90
$10.00
$23.79
$20.00
$47.58
$50.00
$119
$100
$238
$500
$1,190
$1,000
$2,379
$5,000
$11,896
$10,000
$23,792
$100,000
$237,921
$1,000,000
$2,379,212
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2012
Between 1982 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 348.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 29.1%, against 137.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.93%
$238
Medical care
5.13%
$449
Energy
3.07%
$248
Food
2.96%
$240
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.96%
$240
Housing
2.81%
$230
Transportation
2.73%
$224
Apparel
0.86%
$129
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2012
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 1982–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$238
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $166 by
1997, on its way to $238 in 2012; 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 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $238; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2012: $100 is worth $238 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2012/