$100 in 1983 is worth $294 in 2022,
because prices increased 193.8% over that period, an average of
2.80% a year.
$100 in 1983 has
the same buying power as
$294
in 2022
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
193.8%
Average inflation rate
2.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$294
Price difference ($100 base)
$194
CPI in 1983
99.6
CPI in 2022
292.655
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
Inflation in 2022
8.00%
$100 in 1983 → 2022
$294
$100 in 2022 → 1983
$34.03
What happened to prices between 1983 and 2022
Between 1983 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 99.6 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 193.8%, which works out to an average of
2.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1983 bought what
$0.34 buys in 2022: the 1983 dollar
lost 66.0% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2022 at the same ratio, 2.94: $1,000 becomes
$2,938, and $10,000 becomes $29,383.
Amount in 1983
Value in 2022
$1.00
$2.94
$5.00
$14.69
$10.00
$29.38
$20.00
$58.77
$50.00
$147
$100
$294
$500
$1,469
$1,000
$2,938
$5,000
$14,692
$10,000
$29,383
$100,000
$293,830
$1,000,000
$2,938,303
Inflation by spending category, 1983–2022
Between 1983 and 2022, medical care rose the most, up 443.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.8%, against 193.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1983
spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1983 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.80%
$294
Medical care
4.44%
$543
Food
2.92%
$307
Housing
2.88%
$302
Energy
2.84%
$299
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.82%
$295
Transportation
2.56%
$268
Apparel
0.61%
$127
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1983: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1983 to 2022
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 6.34% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1983–2022 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
2020–2022
6.34%
13.1%
$294
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1983
$100 from 1983 had already become $185 by
2003, on its way to $294 in 2022; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 8.0% in 2022, 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: 2022
In 2022, prices rose 8.0% and $100 from 1983 had the buying
power of $294; the year's average CPI of 292.655 is the level
behind every 2022 figure on this page.
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1983 to 2022: $100 is worth $294 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1983 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1983-to-2022/