$100 in 1983 is worth $202 in 2006,
because prices increased 102.4% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$202
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.4%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$202
Price difference ($100 base)
$102
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1983 → 2006
$202
$100 in 2006 → 1983
$49.40
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2006
Between 1983 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.4%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.49 buys in 2006: the 1983 dollar
lost 50.6% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 2006 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,024, and $10,000 becomes $20,241.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2006
$1.00
$2.02
$5.00
$10.12
$10.00
$20.24
$20.00
$40.48
$50.00
$101
$100
$202
$500
$1,012
$1,000
$2,024
$5,000
$10,120
$10,000
$20,241
$100,000
$202,410
$1,000,000
$2,024,096
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2006
Between 1983 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 234.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 19.3%, against 102.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$202
Medical care
5.39%
$334
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.21%
$207
Housing
3.15%
$204
Energy
2.99%
$197
Food
2.98%
$196
Transportation
2.64%
$182
Apparel
0.77%
$119
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $149 by
1994, on its way to $202 in 2006; 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 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $202; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2006: $100 is worth $202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2006/