$100 in 1989 is worth $145 in 2002,
because prices increased 45.1% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
45.1%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$45.08
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1989 → 2002
$145
$100 in 2002 → 1989
$68.93
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2002
Between 1989 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 45.1%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.69 buys in 2002: the 1989 dollar
lost 31.1% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
Every 1989 amount converts to 2002 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,451, and $10,000 becomes $14,508.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2002
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.25
$10.00
$14.51
$20.00
$29.02
$50.00
$72.54
$100
$145
$500
$725
$1,000
$1,451
$5,000
$7,254
$10,000
$14,508
$100,000
$145,081
$1,000,000
$1,450,806
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2002
Between 1989 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 91.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 4.6%, against 45.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$145
Medical care
5.12%
$191
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.04%
$148
Housing
2.99%
$147
Food
2.67%
$141
Transportation
2.28%
$134
Energy
1.98%
$129
Apparel
0.34%
$105
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2002 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1989, at end
1989–1990
5.40%
5.4%
$105
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$139
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $123 by
1995, on its way to $145 in 2002; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $145; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2002: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2002/