$100 in 1982 is worth $281 in 2021,
because prices increased 180.8% over that period, an average of
2.68% a year.
$100 in 1982 has
the same buying power as
$281
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
180.8%
Average inflation rate
2.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$281
Price difference ($100 base)
$181
CPI in 1982
96.5
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1982 → 2021
$281
$100 in 2021 → 1982
$35.61
What happened to prices between 1982 and 2021
Between 1982 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 96.5 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 180.8%, which works out to an average of
2.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1982 bought what
$0.36 buys in 2021: the 1982 dollar
lost 64.4% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2021 at the same ratio, 2.81: $1,000 becomes
$2,808, and $10,000 becomes $28,080.
Amount in 1982
Value in 2021
$1.00
$2.81
$5.00
$14.04
$10.00
$28.08
$20.00
$56.16
$50.00
$140
$100
$281
$500
$1,404
$1,000
$2,808
$5,000
$14,040
$10,000
$28,080
$100,000
$280,798
$1,000,000
$2,807,979
Inflation by spending category, 1982–2021
Between 1982 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 467.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 23.7%, against 180.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1982
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1982 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.68%
$281
Medical care
4.55%
$568
Housing
2.76%
$290
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.76%
$289
Food
2.72%
$285
Energy
2.27%
$240
Transportation
2.25%
$238
Apparel
0.55%
$124
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1982: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1982 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1982–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$268
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$281
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1982
$100 from 1982 had already become $186 by
2002, on its way to $281 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1982 had the buying
power of $281; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1982 to 2021: $100 is worth $281 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1982 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1982-to-2021/