$100 in 1982 is worth $265 in 2019,
because prices increased 164.9% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$265
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
164.9%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$265
Price difference ($100 base)
$165
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1982 → 2019
$265
$100 in 2019 → 1982
$37.75
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2019
Between 1982 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 164.9%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.38 buys in 2019: the 1982 dollar
lost 62.3% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 2019 at the same ratio, 2.65: $1,000 becomes
$2,649, and $10,000 becomes $26,493.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2019
$1.00
$2.65
$5.00
$13.25
$10.00
$26.49
$20.00
$52.99
$50.00
$132
$100
$265
$500
$1,325
$1,000
$2,649
$5,000
$13,246
$10,000
$26,493
$100,000
$264,930
$1,000,000
$2,649,295
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2019
Between 1982 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 438.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.8%, against 164.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$265
Medical care
4.66%
$539
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.77%
$275
Housing
2.77%
$274
Food
2.67%
$265
Energy
2.12%
$217
Transportation
2.11%
$217
Apparel
0.64%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2019
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 1982–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$265
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $178 by
2000, on its way to $265 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $265; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2019: $100 is worth $265 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2019/