$100 in 1989 is worth $236 in 2022,
because prices increased 136.0% over that period, an average of
2.64% a year.
$100 in 1989 has
the same buying power as
$236
in 2022
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.0%
Average inflation rate
2.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$236
Price difference ($100 base)
$136
CPI in 1989
124
CPI in 2022
292.655
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
Inflation in 2022
8.00%
$100 in 1989 → 2022
$236
$100 in 2022 → 1989
$42.37
What happened to prices between 1989 and 2022
Between 1989 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 124 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.0%, which works out to an average of
2.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1989 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2022: the 1989 dollar
lost 57.6% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 2022 at the same ratio, 2.36: $1,000 becomes
$2,360, and $10,000 becomes $23,601.
Amount in 1989
Value in 2022
$1.00
$2.36
$5.00
$11.80
$10.00
$23.60
$20.00
$47.20
$50.00
$118
$100
$236
$500
$1,180
$1,000
$2,360
$5,000
$11,801
$10,000
$23,601
$100,000
$236,012
$1,000,000
$2,360,121
Inflation by spending category, 1989–2022
Between 1989 and 2022, medical care rose the most, up 266.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.2%, against 136.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1989
spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1989 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.64%
$236
Medical care
4.01%
$366
Energy
3.55%
$316
Housing
2.75%
$245
Food
2.74%
$244
Transportation
2.60%
$233
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.53%
$228
Apparel
0.21%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1989: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1989 to 2022
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 6.34% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1989–2022 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$176
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$209
2020–2022
6.34%
13.1%
$236
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1989
$100 from 1989 had already become $158 by
2005, on its way to $236 in 2022; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 8.0% in 2022, 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: 2022
In 2022, prices rose 8.0% and $100 from 1989 had the buying
power of $236; the year's average CPI of 292.655 is the level
behind every 2022 figure on this page.
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1989 to 2022: $100 is worth $236 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1989 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1989-to-2022/