$100 in 1984 is worth $228 in 2015,
because prices increased 128.1% over that period, an average of
2.70% a year.
$100 in 1984 has
the same buying power as
$228
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
128.1%
Average inflation rate
2.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$228
Price difference ($100 base)
$128
CPI in 1984
103.9
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1984 → 2015
$228
$100 in 2015 → 1984
$43.84
What happened to prices between 1984 and 2015
Between 1984 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 103.9 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 128.1%, which works out to an average of
2.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1984 bought what
$0.44 buys in 2015: the 1984 dollar
lost 56.2% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 2015 at the same ratio, 2.28: $1,000 becomes
$2,281, and $10,000 becomes $22,812.
Amount in 1984
Value in 2015
$1.00
$2.28
$5.00
$11.41
$10.00
$22.81
$20.00
$45.62
$50.00
$114
$100
$228
$500
$1,141
$1,000
$2,281
$5,000
$11,406
$10,000
$22,812
$100,000
$228,120
$1,000,000
$2,281,203
Inflation by spending category, 1984–2015
Between 1984 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 318.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 23.3%, against 128.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1984
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1984 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.70%
$228
Medical care
4.72%
$418
Food
2.86%
$240
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.75%
$232
Housing
2.72%
$230
Energy
2.28%
$201
Transportation
2.13%
$192
Apparel
0.68%
$123
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1984: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1984 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.90% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1984–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$228
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1984
$100 from 1984 had already become $166 by
2000, on its way to $228 in 2015; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1984 had the buying
power of $228; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1984 to 2015: $100 is worth $228 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1984 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1984-to-2015/