$100 in 1983 is worth $226 in 2011,
because prices increased 125.8% over that period, an average of
2.95% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$226
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
125.8%
Average inflation rate
2.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$226
Price difference ($100 base)
$126
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1983 → 2011
$226
$100 in 2011 → 1983
$44.28
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2011
Between 1983 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 125.8%, which works out to an average of
2.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.44 buys in 2011: the 1983 dollar
lost 55.7% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 2011 at the same ratio, 2.26: $1,000 becomes
$2,258, and $10,000 becomes $22,584.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2011
$1.00
$2.26
$5.00
$11.29
$10.00
$22.58
$20.00
$45.17
$50.00
$113
$100
$226
$500
$1,129
$1,000
$2,258
$5,000
$11,292
$10,000
$22,584
$100,000
$225,842
$1,000,000
$2,258,424
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2011
Between 1983 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 297.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 21.9%, against 125.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.95%
$226
Medical care
5.06%
$398
Energy
3.24%
$244
Food
3.01%
$229
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.95%
$226
Housing
2.86%
$220
Transportation
2.75%
$214
Apparel
0.71%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$219
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$226
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $161 by
1997, on its way to $226 in 2011; 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 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $226; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2011: $100 is worth $226 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2011/