$100 in 1984 is worth $188 in 2005,
because prices increased 88.0% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$188
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
88.0%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$188
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.97
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1984 → 2005
$188
$100 in 2005 → 1984
$53.20
What happened to prices between 1984 and 2005
Between 1984 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 88.0%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.53 buys in 2005: the 1984 dollar
lost 46.8% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 2005 at the same ratio, 1.88: $1,000 becomes
$1,880, and $10,000 becomes $18,797.
Amount in 1984
Value in 2005
$1.00
$1.88
$5.00
$9.40
$10.00
$18.80
$20.00
$37.59
$50.00
$93.98
$100
$188
$500
$940
$1,000
$1,880
$5,000
$9,398
$10,000
$18,797
$100,000
$187,969
$1,000,000
$1,879,692
Inflation by spending category, 1984–2005
Between 1984 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 202.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 17.0%, against 88.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$188
Medical care
5.41%
$303
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.16%
$192
Housing
3.08%
$189
Food
2.97%
$185
Energy
2.72%
$176
Transportation
2.49%
$168
Apparel
0.75%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$188
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $143 by
1994, on its way to $188 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $188; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 2005: $100 is worth $188 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2005/