$100 in 1986 is worth $135 in 1994,
because prices increased 35.2% over that period, an average of
3.84% a year.
$100 in 1986 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.2%
Average inflation rate
3.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.22
CPI in 1986
109.6
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1986 → 1994
$135
$100 in 1994 → 1986
$73.95
What happened to prices between 1986 and 1994
Between 1986 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 109.6 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.2%, which works out to an average of
3.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1986 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1994: the 1986 dollar
lost 26.0% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
Every 1986 amount converts to 1994 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,352, and $10,000 becomes $13,522.
Amount in 1986
Value in 1994
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.76
$10.00
$13.52
$20.00
$27.04
$50.00
$67.61
$100
$135
$500
$676
$1,000
$1,352
$5,000
$6,761
$10,000
$13,522
$100,000
$135,219
$1,000,000
$1,352,190
Inflation by spending category, 1986–1994
Between 1986 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 73.0%, while energy rose the least, up 18.6%, against 35.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1986
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1986 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.84%
$135
Medical care
7.09%
$173
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.10%
$138
Food
3.57%
$132
Transportation
3.46%
$131
Housing
3.39%
$131
Apparel
2.93%
$126
Energy
2.15%
$119
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1986: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1986 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1986–1994 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1986, at end
1986–1990
4.50%
19.3%
$119
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1986
$100 from 1986 had already become $119 by
1990, on its way to $135 in 1994; 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 the smallest rise was 2.6% in 1994.
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1986 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1986 to 1994: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1986-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1986 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1986-to-1994/