$100 in 1983 is worth $185 in 2003,
because prices increased 84.7% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$185
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.7%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$185
Price difference ($100 base)
$84.74
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1983 → 2003
$185
$100 in 2003 → 1983
$54.13
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2003
Between 1983 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.7%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.54 buys in 2003: the 1983 dollar
lost 45.9% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 2003 at the same ratio, 1.85: $1,000 becomes
$1,847, and $10,000 becomes $18,474.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2003
$1.00
$1.85
$5.00
$9.24
$10.00
$18.47
$20.00
$36.95
$50.00
$92.37
$100
$185
$500
$924
$1,000
$1,847
$5,000
$9,237
$10,000
$18,474
$100,000
$184,739
$1,000,000
$1,847,390
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2003
Between 1983 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 195.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 20.7%, against 84.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$185
Medical care
5.56%
$295
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.37%
$194
Housing
3.14%
$186
Food
3.01%
$181
Transportation
2.34%
$159
Energy
1.57%
$137
Apparel
0.94%
$121
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2003 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1983, at end
1983–1990
3.96%
31.2%
$131
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$173
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $145 by
1993, on its way to $185 in 2003; 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 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $185; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2003: $100 is worth $185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2003/