$100 in 1983 is worth $167 in 1999,
because prices increased 67.3% over that period, an average of
3.27% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
67.3%
Average inflation rate
3.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$67.27
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1983 → 1999
$167
$100 in 1999 → 1983
$59.78
What happened to prices between 1983 and 1999
Between 1983 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 67.3%, which works out to an average of
3.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1999: the 1983 dollar
lost 40.2% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1999 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,673, and $10,000 becomes $16,727.
Amount in 1983
Value in 1999
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.36
$10.00
$16.73
$20.00
$33.45
$50.00
$83.63
$100
$167
$500
$836
$1,000
$1,673
$5,000
$8,363
$10,000
$16,727
$100,000
$167,269
$1,000,000
$1,672,691
Inflation by spending category, 1983–1999
Between 1983 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 149.1%, while energy rose the least, up 6.7%, against 67.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.27%
$167
Medical care
5.87%
$249
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.66%
$178
Food
3.18%
$165
Housing
3.17%
$165
Transportation
2.37%
$145
Apparel
1.70%
$131
Energy
0.41%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–1999 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1983, at end
1983–1990
3.96%
31.2%
$131
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $137 by
1991, on its way to $167 in 1999; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 1999: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-1999/