What America was like in 1983
You were born in…
1983
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
43
years
That’s about 15,700 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1983 cost
20¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1983 would be worth
$3.38
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1983 was
$3.35
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1983
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
43
Super Bowls
From Super Bowl XVIII in 1984 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- Apple introduced the Macintosh1984. You were 1.
- The World Wide Web opened to the public1991. You were 8.
- Amazon sold its first book1995. You were 12.
- Google was founded1998. You were 15.
- Facebook launched2004. You were 21.
- The iPhone went on sale2007. You were 24.
…and 1 more on our list.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1983 story
That was 1983.
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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.