$100 in 1983 is worth $238 in 2015,
because prices increased 138.0% over that period, an average of
2.75% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$238
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
138.0%
Average inflation rate
2.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$238
Price difference ($100 base)
$138
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1983 → 2015
$238
$100 in 2015 → 1983
$42.02
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2015
Between 1983 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 138.0%, which works out to an average of
2.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2015: the 1983 dollar
lost 58.0% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 2015 at the same ratio, 2.38: $1,000 becomes
$2,380, and $10,000 becomes $23,797.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2015
$1.00
$2.38
$5.00
$11.90
$10.00
$23.80
$20.00
$47.59
$50.00
$119
$100
$238
$500
$1,190
$1,000
$2,380
$5,000
$11,898
$10,000
$23,797
$100,000
$237,969
$1,000,000
$2,379,689
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2015
Between 1983 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 344.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 25.7%, against 138.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.75%
$238
Medical care
4.77%
$444
Food
2.89%
$249
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.82%
$243
Housing
2.76%
$239
Energy
2.24%
$203
Transportation
2.20%
$200
Apparel
0.72%
$126
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.96% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$238
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $167 by
1999, on its way to $238 in 2015; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $238; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2015: $100 is worth $238 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2015/