$100 in 1982 is worth $254 in 2017,
because prices increased 154.0% over that period, an average of
2.70% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$254
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
154.0%
Average inflation rate
2.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$254
Price difference ($100 base)
$154
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1982 → 2017
$254
$100 in 2017 → 1982
$39.37
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2017
Between 1982 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 154.0%, which works out to an average of
2.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.39 buys in 2017: the 1982 dollar
lost 60.6% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2017 at the same ratio, 2.54: $1,000 becomes
$2,540, and $10,000 becomes $25,401.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2017
$1.00
$2.54
$5.00
$12.70
$10.00
$25.40
$20.00
$50.80
$50.00
$127
$100
$254
$500
$1,270
$1,000
$2,540
$5,000
$12,701
$10,000
$25,401
$100,000
$254,010
$1,000,000
$2,540,104
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2017
Between 1982 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 413.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 28.4%, against 154.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.70%
$254
Medical care
4.79%
$514
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.80%
$263
Housing
2.76%
$259
Food
2.73%
$257
Transportation
2.11%
$208
Energy
2.09%
$206
Apparel
0.72%
$128
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$254
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $178 by
2000, on its way to $254 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $254; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2017: $100 is worth $254 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2017/