$100 in 1983 is worth $196 in 2005,
because prices increased 96.1% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$196
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
96.1%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$196
Price difference ($100 base)
$96.08
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1983 → 2005
$196
$100 in 2005 → 1983
$51.00
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2005
Between 1983 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 96.1%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.51 buys in 2005: the 1983 dollar
lost 49.0% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 2005 at the same ratio, 1.96: $1,000 becomes
$1,961, and $10,000 becomes $19,608.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2005
$1.00
$1.96
$5.00
$9.80
$10.00
$19.61
$20.00
$39.22
$50.00
$98.04
$100
$196
$500
$980
$1,000
$1,961
$5,000
$9,804
$10,000
$19,608
$100,000
$196,084
$1,000,000
$1,960,843
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2005
Between 1983 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 221.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 19.3%, against 96.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$196
Medical care
5.45%
$321
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.24%
$202
Housing
3.12%
$197
Food
3.01%
$192
Energy
2.64%
$177
Transportation
2.58%
$175
Apparel
0.80%
$119
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$196
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $149 by
1994, on its way to $196 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $196; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2005: $100 is worth $196 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2005/