$100 in 1982 is worth $260 in 2018,
because prices increased 160.2% over that period, an average of
2.69% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$260
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
160.2%
Average inflation rate
2.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$260
Price difference ($100 base)
$160
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1982 → 2018
$260
$100 in 2018 → 1982
$38.43
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2018
Between 1982 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 160.2%, which works out to an average of
2.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.38 buys in 2018: the 1982 dollar
lost 61.6% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 2018 at the same ratio, 2.60: $1,000 becomes
$2,602, and $10,000 becomes $26,021.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2018
$1.00
$2.60
$5.00
$13.01
$10.00
$26.02
$20.00
$52.04
$50.00
$130
$100
$260
$500
$1,301
$1,000
$2,602
$5,000
$13,011
$10,000
$26,021
$100,000
$260,215
$1,000,000
$2,602,145
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2018
Between 1982 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 424.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 28.5%, against 160.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.69%
$260
Medical care
4.71%
$524
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.79%
$269
Housing
2.76%
$267
Food
2.69%
$260
Energy
2.24%
$222
Transportation
2.18%
$217
Apparel
0.70%
$128
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.86% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$260
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $178 by
2000, on its way to $260 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $260; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2018: $100 is worth $260 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2018/