What America was like in 1982
You were born in…
1982
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
44
years
That’s about 16,100 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1982 cost
20¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1982 would be worth
$3.49
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1982 was
$3.35
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1982
Ronald Reagan
Since then you’ve lived under 7 presidents.
The 1980 census counted
227 million
Americans
By 2020 there were 331 million of us.
You’ve been around for
44
Super Bowls
From Super Bowl XVII in 1983 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- Compact discs reached American stores1983. You were 1.
- Apple introduced the Macintosh1984. You were 2.
- The World Wide Web opened to the public1991. You were 9.
- Amazon sold its first book1995. You were 13.
- Google was founded1998. You were 16.
- Facebook launched2004. You were 22.
…and 2 more on our list.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1982 story
That was 1982.
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Where these numbers come from
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, 1982-84=100
- U.S. Postal Service, Rates for Domestic Letters Since 1863
- U.S. Department of Labor, history of federal minimum wage rates
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census resident population
- Presidents and milestones: widely documented public records.