$100 in 1983 is worth $104 in 1984,
because prices increased 4.3% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$104
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
4.3%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$104
Price difference ($100 base)
$4.32
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1983 → 1984
$104
$100 in 1984 → 1983
$95.86
What happened to prices between 1983 and 1984
Between 1983 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 4.3%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.96 buys in 1984: the 1983 dollar
lost 4.1% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
Every 1983 amount converts to 1984 at the same ratio, 1.04: $1,000 becomes
$1,043, and $10,000 becomes $10,432.
Amount in 1983
Value in 1984
$1.00
$1.04
$5.00
$5.22
$10.00
$10.43
$20.00
$20.86
$50.00
$52.16
$100
$104
$500
$522
$1,000
$1,043
$5,000
$5,216
$10,000
$10,432
$100,000
$104,317
$1,000,000
$1,043,173
Inflation by spending category, 1983–1984
Between 1983 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 6.2%, while energy rose the least, up 1.0%, against 4.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$104
Medical care
6.16%
$106
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.02%
$105
Transportation
4.43%
$104
Housing
4.12%
$104
Food
3.82%
$104
Apparel
1.90%
$102
Energy
1.00%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983grew to $104 by 1984; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $104; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 1984: $100 is worth $104 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1984/