$100 in 1990 is worth $164 in 2009,
because prices increased 64.1% over that period, an average of
2.64% a year.
$100 in 1990 has
the same buying power as
$164
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
64.1%
Average inflation rate
2.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$164
Price difference ($100 base)
$64.14
CPI in 1990
130.7
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1990 → 2009
$164
$100 in 2009 → 1990
$60.92
What happened to prices between 1990 and 2009
Between 1990 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 130.7 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 64.1%, which works out to an average of
2.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1990 bought what
$0.61 buys in 2009: the 1990 dollar
lost 39.1% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 2009 at the same ratio, 1.64: $1,000 becomes
$1,641, and $10,000 becomes $16,414.
Amount in 1990
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.64
$5.00
$8.21
$10.00
$16.41
$20.00
$32.83
$50.00
$82.07
$100
$164
$500
$821
$1,000
$1,641
$5,000
$8,207
$10,000
$16,414
$100,000
$164,145
$1,000,000
$1,641,446
Inflation by spending category, 1990–2009
Between 1990 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 130.7%, while apparel fell 3.2%, against 64.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1990
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1990 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.64%
$164
Medical care
4.50%
$231
Energy
3.41%
$189
Housing
2.80%
$169
Food
2.66%
$165
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.56%
$162
Transportation
2.11%
$149
Apparel
-0.17%
$96.76
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1990: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1990 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.80% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1990–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1990, at end
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$132
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$164
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1990
$100 from 1990 had already become $127 by
1999, on its way to $164 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1990 had the buying
power of $164; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1990 to 2009: $100 is worth $164 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1990-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1990 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1990-to-2009/