$100 in 1987 is worth $189 in 2009,
because prices increased 88.9% over that period, an average of
2.93% a year.
$100 in 1987 has
the same buying power as
$189
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
88.9%
Average inflation rate
2.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$189
Price difference ($100 base)
$88.85
CPI in 1987
113.6
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1987 → 2009
$189
$100 in 2009 → 1987
$52.95
What happened to prices between 1987 and 2009
Between 1987 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 113.6 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 88.9%, which works out to an average of
2.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1987 bought what
$0.53 buys in 2009: the 1987 dollar
lost 47.0% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
Every 1987 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.89: $1,000 becomes
$1,889, and $10,000 becomes $18,885.
Amount in 1987
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.89
$5.00
$9.44
$10.00
$18.89
$20.00
$37.77
$50.00
$94.43
$100
$189
$500
$944
$1,000
$1,889
$5,000
$9,443
$10,000
$18,885
$100,000
$188,853
$1,000,000
$1,888,530
Inflation by spending category, 1987–2009
Between 1987 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 188.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.6%, against 88.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1987
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1987 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.93%
$189
Medical care
4.94%
$289
Energy
3.61%
$218
Food
3.01%
$192
Housing
2.96%
$190
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.85%
$185
Transportation
2.44%
$170
Apparel
0.37%
$109
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1987: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1987 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 4.78% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1987–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1987, at end
1987–1990
4.78%
15.1%
$115
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$152
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$189
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1987
$100 from 1987 had already become $143 by
1998, on its way to $189 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 1987 had the buying
power of $189; 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 1987 to 2009: $100 is worth $189 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1987-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1987 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1987-to-2009/