$100 in 1982 is worth $249 in 2016,
because prices increased 148.7% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$249
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
148.7%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$249
Price difference ($100 base)
$149
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1982 → 2016
$249
$100 in 2016 → 1982
$40.21
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2016
Between 1982 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 148.7%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.40 buys in 2016: the 1982 dollar
lost 59.8% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 2016 at the same ratio, 2.49: $1,000 becomes
$2,487, and $10,000 becomes $24,871.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2016
$1.00
$2.49
$5.00
$12.44
$10.00
$24.87
$20.00
$49.74
$50.00
$124
$100
$249
$500
$1,244
$1,000
$2,487
$5,000
$12,436
$10,000
$24,871
$100,000
$248,712
$1,000,000
$2,487,119
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2016
Between 1982 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 401.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 28.9%, against 148.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$249
Medical care
4.86%
$501
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.83%
$258
Food
2.79%
$255
Housing
2.75%
$252
Transportation
2.07%
$201
Energy
1.92%
$191
Apparel
0.75%
$129
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$249
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $169 by
1998, on its way to $249 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $249; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2016: $100 is worth $249 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2016/