$100 in 1986 is worth $236 in 2020,
because prices increased 136.1% over that period, an average of
2.56% a year.
$100 in 1986 has
the same buying power as
$236
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.1%
Average inflation rate
2.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$236
Price difference ($100 base)
$136
CPI in 1986
109.6
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1986 → 2020
$236
$100 in 2020 → 1986
$42.35
What happened to prices between 1986 and 2020
Between 1986 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 109.6 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.1%, which works out to an average of
2.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1986 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2020: the 1986 dollar
lost 57.7% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 2020 at the same ratio, 2.36: $1,000 becomes
$2,361, and $10,000 becomes $23,614.
Amount in 1986
Value in 2020
$1.00
$2.36
$5.00
$11.81
$10.00
$23.61
$20.00
$47.23
$50.00
$118
$100
$236
$500
$1,181
$1,000
$2,361
$5,000
$11,807
$10,000
$23,614
$100,000
$236,141
$1,000,000
$2,361,414
Inflation by spending category, 1986–2020
Between 1986 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 325.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.5%, against 136.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1986
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1986 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.56%
$236
Medical care
4.35%
$425
Food
2.67%
$245
Housing
2.67%
$245
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.56%
$236
Energy
2.39%
$223
Transportation
2.01%
$197
Apparel
0.32%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1986: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1986 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.50% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1986–2020 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$199
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$236
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1986
$100 from 1986 had already become $164 by
2002, on its way to $236 in 2020; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1986 had the buying
power of $236; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1986 to 2020: $100 is worth $236 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1986-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1986 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1986-to-2020/