$100 in 1983 is worth $149 in 1994,
because prices increased 48.8% over that period, an average of
3.68% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$149
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.8%
Average inflation rate
3.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$149
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.80
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1983 → 1994
$149
$100 in 1994 → 1983
$67.21
What happened to prices between 1983 and 1994
Between 1983 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.8%, which works out to an average of
3.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1994: the 1983 dollar
lost 32.8% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1994 at the same ratio, 1.49: $1,000 becomes
$1,488, and $10,000 becomes $14,880.
Amount in 1983
Value in 1994
$1.00
$1.49
$5.00
$7.44
$10.00
$14.88
$20.00
$29.76
$50.00
$74.40
$100
$149
$500
$744
$1,000
$1,488
$5,000
$7,440
$10,000
$14,880
$100,000
$148,795
$1,000,000
$1,487,952
Inflation by spending category, 1983–1994
Between 1983 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 109.7%, while energy rose the least, up 4.7%, against 48.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.68%
$149
Medical care
6.97%
$210
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.19%
$157
Housing
3.47%
$146
Food
3.45%
$145
Transportation
2.78%
$135
Apparel
2.64%
$133
Energy
0.42%
$105
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–1994 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1983, at end
1983–1990
3.96%
31.2%
$131
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$149
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $119 by
1988, on its way to $149 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $149; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 1994: $100 is worth $149 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1994/