$100 in 1982 is worth $245 in 2014,
because prices increased 145.3% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$245
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
145.3%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$245
Price difference ($100 base)
$145
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1982 → 2014
$245
$100 in 2014 → 1982
$40.76
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2014
Between 1982 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 145.3%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.41 buys in 2014: the 1982 dollar
lost 59.2% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2014 at the same ratio, 2.45: $1,000 becomes
$2,453, and $10,000 becomes $24,532.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2014
$1.00
$2.45
$5.00
$12.27
$10.00
$24.53
$20.00
$49.06
$50.00
$123
$100
$245
$500
$1,227
$1,000
$2,453
$5,000
$12,266
$10,000
$24,532
$100,000
$245,322
$1,000,000
$2,453,223
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2014
Between 1982 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 370.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.4%, against 145.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$245
Medical care
4.96%
$471
Food
2.89%
$249
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.88%
$248
Energy
2.85%
$246
Housing
2.78%
$241
Transportation
2.53%
$223
Apparel
0.83%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$245
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $169 by
1998, on its way to $245 in 2014; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $245; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2014: $100 is worth $245 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2014/