$100 in 1984 is worth $216 in 2011,
because prices increased 116.5% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
116.5%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1984 → 2011
$216
$100 in 2011 → 1984
$46.19
What happened to prices between 1984 and 2011
Between 1984 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 116.5%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.46 buys in 2011: the 1984 dollar
lost 53.8% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 2011 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,165, and $10,000 becomes $21,650.
Amount in 1984
Value in 2011
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.82
$10.00
$21.65
$20.00
$43.30
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,082
$1,000
$2,165
$5,000
$10,825
$10,000
$21,650
$100,000
$216,496
$1,000,000
$2,164,957
Inflation by spending category, 1984–2011
Between 1984 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 274.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 19.6%, against 116.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$216
Medical care
5.01%
$375
Energy
3.32%
$242
Food
2.98%
$221
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.88%
$215
Housing
2.81%
$211
Transportation
2.69%
$205
Apparel
0.67%
$120
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$210
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $154 by
1997, on its way to $216 in 2011; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 2011: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2011/