$100 in 1992 is worth $135 in 2004,
because prices increased 34.6% over that period, an average of
2.51% a year.
$100 in 1992 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
34.6%
Average inflation rate
2.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$34.64
CPI in 1992
140.3
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1992 → 2004
$135
$100 in 2004 → 1992
$74.27
What happened to prices between 1992 and 2004
Between 1992 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 140.3 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 34.6%, which works out to an average of
2.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1992 bought what
$0.74 buys in 2004: the 1992 dollar
lost 25.7% of its purchasing power over
these 12 years.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
Every 1992 amount converts to 2004 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,346, and $10,000 becomes $13,464.
Amount in 1992
Value in 2004
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.73
$10.00
$13.46
$20.00
$26.93
$50.00
$67.32
$100
$135
$500
$673
$1,000
$1,346
$5,000
$6,732
$10,000
$13,464
$100,000
$134,640
$1,000,000
$1,346,401
Inflation by spending category, 1992–2004
Between 1992 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 63.1%, while apparel fell 8.7%, against 34.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1992
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1992 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.51%
$135
Medical care
4.16%
$163
Energy
3.26%
$147
Housing
2.71%
$138
Food
2.53%
$135
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.44%
$133
Transportation
2.14%
$129
Apparel
-0.76%
$91.28
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1992: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1992 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.59% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1992–2004 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1992, at end
1992–2000
2.59%
22.7%
$123
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1992
$100 from 1992 had already become $116 by
1998, on its way to $135 in 2004; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.4% in 2000, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1992 had the buying
power of $135; 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 1992 to 2004: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1992-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1992 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1992-to-2004/