$100 in 1984 is worth $131 in 1991,
because prices increased 31.1% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
31.1%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$31.09
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1984 → 1991
$131
$100 in 1991 → 1984
$76.28
What happened to prices between 1984 and 1991
Between 1984 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 31.1%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.76 buys in 1991: the 1984 dollar
lost 23.7% of its purchasing power over
these 7 years.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
Every 1984 amount converts to 1991 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,311, and $10,000 becomes $13,109.
Amount in 1984
Value in 1991
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.55
$10.00
$13.11
$20.00
$26.22
$50.00
$65.54
$100
$131
$500
$655
$1,000
$1,311
$5,000
$6,554
$10,000
$13,109
$100,000
$131,088
$1,000,000
$1,310,876
Inflation by spending category, 1984–1991
Between 1984 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 65.7%, while energy rose the least, up 1.6%, against 31.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$131
Medical care
7.48%
$166
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.47%
$136
Food
4.05%
$132
Housing
3.70%
$129
Apparel
3.36%
$126
Transportation
2.56%
$119
Energy
0.23%
$102
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 4.21% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (3.90% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1984, at end
1984–1990
3.90%
25.8%
$126
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $109 by
1987, on its way to $131 in 1991; 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 the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 1991: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1991/