$100 in 1983 is worth $215 in 2009,
because prices increased 115.4% over that period, an average of
3.00% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$215
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
115.4%
Average inflation rate
3.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$215
Price difference ($100 base)
$115
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1983 → 2009
$215
$100 in 2009 → 1983
$46.43
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2009
Between 1983 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 115.4%, which works out to an average of
3.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.46 buys in 2009: the 1983 dollar
lost 53.6% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 2009 at the same ratio, 2.15: $1,000 becomes
$2,154, and $10,000 becomes $21,540.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2009
$1.00
$2.15
$5.00
$10.77
$10.00
$21.54
$20.00
$43.08
$50.00
$108
$100
$215
$500
$1,077
$1,000
$2,154
$5,000
$10,770
$10,000
$21,540
$100,000
$215,399
$1,000,000
$2,153,986
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2009
Between 1983 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 273.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 19.8%, against 115.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.00%
$215
Medical care
5.20%
$373
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.08%
$220
Food
3.07%
$219
Housing
3.05%
$218
Energy
2.57%
$193
Transportation
2.30%
$181
Apparel
0.70%
$120
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $158 by
1996, on its way to $215 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $215; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2009: $100 is worth $215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2009/