$100 in 1991 is worth $190 in 2020,
because prices increased 90.0% over that period, an average of
2.24% a year.
$100 in 1991 has
the same buying power as
$190
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
90.0%
Average inflation rate
2.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$190
Price difference ($100 base)
$90.02
CPI in 1991
136.2
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1991 → 2020
$190
$100 in 2020 → 1991
$52.63
What happened to prices between 1991 and 2020
Between 1991 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 136.2 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 90.0%, which works out to an average of
2.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1991 bought what
$0.53 buys in 2020: the 1991 dollar
lost 47.4% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 2020 at the same ratio, 1.90: $1,000 becomes
$1,900, and $10,000 becomes $19,002.
Amount in 1991
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.90
$5.00
$9.50
$10.00
$19.00
$20.00
$38.00
$50.00
$95.01
$100
$190
$500
$950
$1,000
$1,900
$5,000
$9,501
$10,000
$19,002
$100,000
$190,023
$1,000,000
$1,900,228
Inflation by spending category, 1991–2020
Between 1991 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 193.2%, while apparel fell 8.3%, against 90.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1991
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1991 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.24%
$190
Medical care
3.78%
$293
Housing
2.48%
$203
Food
2.35%
$196
Energy
2.28%
$192
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.21%
$188
Transportation
1.69%
$163
Apparel
-0.30%
$91.75
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1991: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1991 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.64% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1991–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1991, at end
1991–2000
2.64%
26.4%
$126
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$160
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$190
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1991
$100 from 1991 had already become $143 by
2005, on its way to $190 in 2020; 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 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1991 had the buying
power of $190; 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 1991 to 2020: $100 is worth $190 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1991-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1991 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1991-to-2020/