$100 in 1990 is worth $145 in 2004,
because prices increased 44.5% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1990 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
44.5%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$44.53
CPI in 1990
130.7
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1990 → 2004
$145
$100 in 2004 → 1990
$69.19
What happened to prices between 1990 and 2004
Between 1990 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 130.7 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 44.5%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1990 bought what
$0.69 buys in 2004: the 1990 dollar
lost 30.8% of its purchasing power over
these 14 years.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
Every 1990 amount converts to 2004 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,445, and $10,000 becomes $14,453.
Amount in 1990
Value in 2004
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.23
$10.00
$14.45
$20.00
$28.91
$50.00
$72.26
$100
$145
$500
$723
$1,000
$1,445
$5,000
$7,226
$10,000
$14,453
$100,000
$144,529
$1,000,000
$1,445,295
Inflation by spending category, 1990–2004
Between 1990 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 90.5%, while apparel fell 3.0%, against 44.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1990
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1990 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$145
Medical care
4.71%
$190
Energy
2.85%
$148
Housing
2.81%
$147
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.69%
$145
Food
2.47%
$141
Transportation
2.19%
$135
Apparel
-0.22%
$97.02
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1990: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1990 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.80% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1990–2004 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1990, at end
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$132
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1990
$100 from 1990 had already become $123 by
1997, on its way to $145 in 2004; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.2% in 1991, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1990 had the buying
power of $145; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1990 to 2004: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1990-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1990 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1990-to-2004/