$100 in 1984 is worth $194 in 2006,
because prices increased 94.0% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$194
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
94.0%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$194
Price difference ($100 base)
$94.03
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1984 → 2006
$194
$100 in 2006 → 1984
$51.54
What happened to prices between 1984 and 2006
Between 1984 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 94.0%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.52 buys in 2006: the 1984 dollar
lost 48.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 2006 at the same ratio, 1.94: $1,000 becomes
$1,940, and $10,000 becomes $19,403.
Amount in 1984
Value in 2006
$1.00
$1.94
$5.00
$9.70
$10.00
$19.40
$20.00
$38.81
$50.00
$97.02
$100
$194
$500
$970
$1,000
$1,940
$5,000
$9,702
$10,000
$19,403
$100,000
$194,033
$1,000,000
$1,940,327
Inflation by spending category, 1984–2006
Between 1984 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 214.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 17.0%, against 94.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$194
Medical care
5.35%
$315
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.13%
$197
Housing
3.11%
$196
Energy
3.09%
$195
Food
2.94%
$189
Transportation
2.56%
$174
Apparel
0.72%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$194
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $147 by
1995, on its way to $194 in 2006; 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 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $194; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 2006: $100 is worth $194 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2006/