$100 in 1983 is worth $145 in 1993,
because prices increased 45.1% over that period, an average of
3.79% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
45.1%
Average inflation rate
3.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$45.08
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1983 → 1993
$145
$100 in 1993 → 1983
$68.93
What happened to prices between 1983 and 1993
Between 1983 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 45.1%, which works out to an average of
3.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.69 buys in 1993: the 1983 dollar
lost 31.1% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1993 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,451, and $10,000 becomes $14,508.
Amount in 1983
Value in 1993
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.25
$10.00
$14.51
$20.00
$29.02
$50.00
$72.54
$100
$145
$500
$725
$1,000
$1,451
$5,000
$7,254
$10,000
$14,508
$100,000
$145,080
$1,000,000
$1,450,803
Inflation by spending category, 1983–1993
Between 1983 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 100.2%, while energy rose the least, up 4.3%, against 45.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.79%
$145
Medical care
7.19%
$200
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.33%
$153
Housing
3.56%
$142
Food
3.55%
$142
Apparel
2.93%
$133
Transportation
2.76%
$131
Energy
0.42%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–1993 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1983, at end
1983–1990
3.96%
31.2%
$131
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $119 by
1988, on its way to $145 in 1993; 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 the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $145; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 1993: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1993/