$100 in 1984 is worth $177 in 2003,
because prices increased 77.1% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$177
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
77.1%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$177
Price difference ($100 base)
$77.09
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1984 → 2003
$177
$100 in 2003 → 1984
$56.47
What happened to prices between 1984 and 2003
Between 1984 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 77.1%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.56 buys in 2003: the 1984 dollar
lost 43.5% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 2003 at the same ratio, 1.77: $1,000 becomes
$1,771, and $10,000 becomes $17,709.
Amount in 1984
Value in 2003
$1.00
$1.77
$5.00
$8.85
$10.00
$17.71
$20.00
$35.42
$50.00
$88.55
$100
$177
$500
$885
$1,000
$1,771
$5,000
$8,855
$10,000
$17,709
$100,000
$177,093
$1,000,000
$1,770,934
Inflation by spending category, 1984–2003
Between 1984 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 178.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 18.4%, against 77.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$177
Medical care
5.53%
$278
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.28%
$185
Housing
3.09%
$178
Food
2.97%
$174
Transportation
2.23%
$152
Energy
1.60%
$135
Apparel
0.89%
$118
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–2003 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1984, at end
1984–1990
3.90%
25.8%
$126
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$166
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$177
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $139 by
1993, on its way to $177 in 2003; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $177; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 2003: $100 is worth $177 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2003/