Backwards inflation calculator?

November 28, 2011 1:14 PM

I'm looking for an accurate inflation calculator that will tell me how much a certain sum in today's dollars would be worth in any particular year over the past 30 years. For example, if I have $1000.00 USD today, what would be the equivalent monetary value in 1982? Or 1993?
posted by thewalrus to work & money (8 answers total)

Did you try this? Even though it says "initial year" and "final" year, you can just swap them and it gives you what you're looking for.
posted by King Bee at 1:17 PM on November 28, 2011

The Mpls. Fed's "What's a Dollar Worth?" calculator does this.
posted by Floydd at 1:31 PM on November 28, 2011

there's roughly a million inflation calculators online, here's the first google hit -- just put 2011 as the year you bought something, and some other year as the one you want to know about
posted by brainmouse at 1:54 PM on November 28, 2011

I always use Wolfram Alpha for this - the search strings for historical value (and vice versa) are listed here.
posted by dialetheia at 1:56 PM on November 28, 2011

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has one too.
posted by Siobhan at 1:59 PM on November 28, 2011

(Actually all of these links rely on the same set of data, the Consumer Price Index, compiled monthly by the BLS.)
posted by Siobhan at 2:04 PM on November 28, 2011

This one has a couple of variations on the CPI data and some other break-outs, notably one indexed specifically to medical inflation.
posted by Wretch729 at 2:25 PM on November 28, 2011

Should read medical costs inflation.
posted by Wretch729 at 2:26 PM on November 28, 2011