$100 in 1988 is worth $219 in 2020,
because prices increased 118.8% over that period, an average of
2.48% a year.
$100 in 1988 has
the same buying power as
$219
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
118.8%
Average inflation rate
2.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$219
Price difference ($100 base)
$119
CPI in 1988
118.3
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1988 → 2020
$219
$100 in 2020 → 1988
$45.71
What happened to prices between 1988 and 2020
Between 1988 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 118.3 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 118.8%, which works out to an average of
2.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1988 bought what
$0.46 buys in 2020: the 1988 dollar
lost 54.3% of its purchasing power over
these 32 years.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
Every 1988 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 2.19: $1,000 becomes
$2,188, and $10,000 becomes $21,878.
Amount in 1988
Value in 2020
$1.00
$2.19
$5.00
$10.94
$10.00
$21.88
$20.00
$43.76
$50.00
$109
$100
$219
$500
$1,094
$1,000
$2,188
$5,000
$10,939
$10,000
$21,878
$100,000
$218,775
$1,000,000
$2,187,751
Inflation by spending category, 1988–2020
Between 1988 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 274.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 2.3%, against 118.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1988
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1988 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.48%
$219
Medical care
4.21%
$374
Housing
2.63%
$229
Food
2.58%
$226
Energy
2.50%
$221
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.45%
$217
Transportation
1.94%
$185
Apparel
0.07%
$102
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1988: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1988 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.11% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1988–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1988, at end
1988–1990
5.11%
10.5%
$110
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$146
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$184
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$219
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1988
$100 from 1988 had already become $160 by
2004, on its way to $219 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 1988 had the buying
power of $219; 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 1988 to 2020: $100 is worth $219 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1988-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1988 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1988-to-2020/