$100 in 1984 is worth $143 in 1994,
because prices increased 42.6% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$143
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
42.6%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$143
Price difference ($100 base)
$42.64
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1984 → 1994
$143
$100 in 1994 → 1984
$70.11
What happened to prices between 1984 and 1994
Between 1984 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 42.6%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.70 buys in 1994: the 1984 dollar
lost 29.9% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1994 at the same ratio, 1.43: $1,000 becomes
$1,426, and $10,000 becomes $14,264.
Amount in 1984
Value in 1994
$1.00
$1.43
$5.00
$7.13
$10.00
$14.26
$20.00
$28.53
$50.00
$71.32
$100
$143
$500
$713
$1,000
$1,426
$5,000
$7,132
$10,000
$14,264
$100,000
$142,637
$1,000,000
$1,426,372
Inflation by spending category, 1984–1994
Between 1984 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 97.6%, while energy rose the least, up 3.7%, against 42.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$143
Medical care
7.05%
$198
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.11%
$150
Food
3.41%
$140
Housing
3.40%
$140
Apparel
2.71%
$131
Transportation
2.62%
$130
Energy
0.36%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–1994 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1984, at end
1984–1990
3.90%
25.8%
$126
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$143
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $119 by
1989, on its way to $143 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $143; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 1994: $100 is worth $143 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-1994/