$100 in 1991 is worth $158 in 2009,
because prices increased 57.5% over that period, an average of
2.56% a year.
$100 in 1991 has
the same buying power as
$158
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.5%
Average inflation rate
2.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$158
Price difference ($100 base)
$57.52
CPI in 1991
136.2
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1991 → 2009
$158
$100 in 2009 → 1991
$63.49
What happened to prices between 1991 and 2009
Between 1991 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 136.2 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.5%, which works out to an average of
2.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1991 bought what
$0.63 buys in 2009: the 1991 dollar
lost 36.5% of its purchasing power over
these 18 years.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
Every 1991 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.58: $1,000 becomes
$1,575, and $10,000 becomes $15,752.
Amount in 1991
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.58
$5.00
$7.88
$10.00
$15.75
$20.00
$31.50
$50.00
$78.76
$100
$158
$500
$788
$1,000
$1,575
$5,000
$7,876
$10,000
$15,752
$100,000
$157,516
$1,000,000
$1,575,162
Inflation by spending category, 1991–2009
Between 1991 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 112.2%, while apparel fell 6.7%, against 57.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1991
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1991 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.56%
$158
Medical care
4.27%
$212
Energy
3.58%
$188
Housing
2.73%
$162
Food
2.64%
$160
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.44%
$154
Transportation
2.08%
$145
Apparel
-0.38%
$93.30
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1991: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1991 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.64% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1991–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1991, at end
1991–2000
2.64%
26.4%
$126
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$158
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1991
$100 from 1991 had already become $126 by
2000, on its way to $158 in 2009; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.8% in 2008, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1991 had the buying
power of $158; 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 1991 to 2009: $100 is worth $158 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1991-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1991 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1991-to-2009/