$100 in 1986 is worth $196 in 2009,
because prices increased 95.7% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1986 has
the same buying power as
$196
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.7%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$196
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.75
CPI in 1986
109.6
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1986 → 2009
$196
$100 in 2009 → 1986
$51.09
What happened to prices between 1986 and 2009
Between 1986 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 109.6 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.7%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1986 bought what
$0.51 buys in 2009: the 1986 dollar
lost 48.9% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 2009 at the same ratio, 1.96: $1,000 becomes
$1,957, and $10,000 becomes $19,575.
Amount in 1986
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.96
$5.00
$9.79
$10.00
$19.57
$20.00
$39.15
$50.00
$97.87
$100
$196
$500
$979
$1,000
$1,957
$5,000
$9,787
$10,000
$19,575
$100,000
$195,745
$1,000,000
$1,957,454
Inflation by spending category, 1986–2009
Between 1986 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 207.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.4%, against 95.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1986
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1986 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$196
Medical care
5.01%
$308
Energy
3.47%
$219
Food
3.06%
$200
Housing
2.96%
$196
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.90%
$193
Transportation
2.47%
$175
Apparel
0.55%
$113
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1986: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1986 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.50% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1986–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1986, at end
1986–1990
4.50%
19.3%
$119
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$157
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$196
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1986
$100 from 1986 had already become $146 by
1997, on its way to $196 in 2009; 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.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1986 had the buying
power of $196; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1986 to 2009: $100 is worth $196 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1986-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1986 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1986-to-2009/