$100 in 1989 is worth $158 in 2005,
because prices increased 57.5% over that period, an average of
2.88% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$158
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.5%
Average inflation rate
2.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$158
Price difference ($100 base)
$57.50
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1989 → 2005
$158
$100 in 2005 → 1989
$63.49
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2005
Between 1989 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.5%, which works out to an average of
2.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.63 buys in 2005: the 1989 dollar
lost 36.5% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 2005 at the same ratio, 1.58: $1,000 becomes
$1,575, and $10,000 becomes $15,750.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2005
$1.00
$1.58
$5.00
$7.88
$10.00
$15.75
$20.00
$31.50
$50.00
$78.75
$100
$158
$500
$788
$1,000
$1,575
$5,000
$7,875
$10,000
$15,750
$100,000
$157,500
$1,000,000
$1,575,000
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2005
Between 1989 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 116.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 0.8%, against 57.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.88%
$158
Medical care
4.95%
$216
Energy
4.02%
$188
Housing
2.95%
$159
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.81%
$156
Food
2.67%
$152
Transportation
2.67%
$152
Apparel
0.05%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 5.40% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$158
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $129 by
1997, on its way to $158 in 2005; 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 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $158; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2005: $100 is worth $158 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2005/