$100 in 1982 is worth $246 in 2015,
because prices increased 145.6% over that period, an average of
2.76% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$246
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
145.6%
Average inflation rate
2.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$246
Price difference ($100 base)
$146
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1982 → 2015
$246
$100 in 2015 → 1982
$40.71
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2015
Between 1982 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 145.6%, which works out to an average of
2.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.41 buys in 2015: the 1982 dollar
lost 59.3% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 2015 at the same ratio, 2.46: $1,000 becomes
$2,456, and $10,000 becomes $24,561.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2015
$1.00
$2.46
$5.00
$12.28
$10.00
$24.56
$20.00
$49.12
$50.00
$123
$100
$246
$500
$1,228
$1,000
$2,456
$5,000
$12,281
$10,000
$24,561
$100,000
$245,613
$1,000,000
$2,456,135
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2015
Between 1982 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 383.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 28.7%, against 145.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.76%
$246
Medical care
4.89%
$483
Food
2.86%
$254
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.85%
$253
Housing
2.76%
$246
Transportation
2.20%
$205
Energy
2.19%
$205
Apparel
0.77%
$129
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$246
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $169 by
1998, on its way to $246 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $246; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2015: $100 is worth $246 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2015/