$100 in 1990 is worth $198 in 2020,
because prices increased 98.0% over that period, an average of
2.30% a year.
$100 in 1990 has
the same buying power as
$198
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.0%
Average inflation rate
2.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$198
Price difference ($100 base)
$98.02
CPI in 1990
130.7
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1990 → 2020
$198
$100 in 2020 → 1990
$50.50
What happened to prices between 1990 and 2020
Between 1990 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 130.7 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.0%, which works out to an average of
2.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1990 bought what
$0.51 buys in 2020: the 1990 dollar
lost 49.5% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2020 at the same ratio, 1.98: $1,000 becomes
$1,980, and $10,000 becomes $19,802.
Amount in 1990
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.98
$5.00
$9.90
$10.00
$19.80
$20.00
$39.60
$50.00
$99.01
$100
$198
$500
$990
$1,000
$1,980
$5,000
$9,901
$10,000
$19,802
$100,000
$198,019
$1,000,000
$1,980,191
Inflation by spending category, 1990–2020
Between 1990 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 218.7%, while apparel fell 4.9%, against 98.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1990
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1990 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.30%
$198
Medical care
3.94%
$319
Housing
2.53%
$211
Food
2.37%
$202
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.30%
$198
Energy
2.21%
$193
Transportation
1.73%
$167
Apparel
-0.17%
$95.15
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1990: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1990 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.80% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1990–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1990, at end
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$132
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$167
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$198
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1990
$100 from 1990 had already become $149 by
2005, on its way to $198 in 2020; 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 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1990 had the buying
power of $198; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1990 to 2020: $100 is worth $198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1990-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1990 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1990-to-2020/