$100 in 1983 is worth $272 in 2021,
because prices increased 172.1% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$272
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
172.1%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$272
Price difference ($100 base)
$172
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1983 → 2021
$272
$100 in 2021 → 1983
$36.76
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2021
Between 1983 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 172.1%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.37 buys in 2021: the 1983 dollar
lost 63.2% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2021 at the same ratio, 2.72: $1,000 becomes
$2,721, and $10,000 becomes $27,206.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2021
$1.00
$2.72
$5.00
$13.60
$10.00
$27.21
$20.00
$54.41
$50.00
$136
$100
$272
$500
$1,360
$1,000
$2,721
$5,000
$13,603
$10,000
$27,206
$100,000
$272,058
$1,000,000
$2,720,582
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2021
Between 1983 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 422.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 20.8%, against 172.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$272
Medical care
4.45%
$522
Housing
2.77%
$282
Food
2.74%
$279
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.73%
$278
Energy
2.31%
$239
Transportation
2.24%
$232
Apparel
0.50%
$121
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$260
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$272
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $178 by
2001, on its way to $272 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $272; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2021: $100 is worth $272 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2021/