$100 in 1993 is worth $156 in 2011,
because prices increased 55.7% over that period, an average of
2.49% a year.
$100 in 1993 has
the same buying power as
$156
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.7%
Average inflation rate
2.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$156
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.67
CPI in 1993
144.5
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1993 → 2011
$156
$100 in 2011 → 1993
$64.24
What happened to prices between 1993 and 2011
Between 1993 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 144.5 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.7%, which works out to an average of
2.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1993 bought what
$0.64 buys in 2011: the 1993 dollar
lost 35.8% of its purchasing power over
these 18 years.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
Every 1993 amount converts to 2011 at the same ratio, 1.56: $1,000 becomes
$1,557, and $10,000 becomes $15,567.
Amount in 1993
Value in 2011
$1.00
$1.56
$5.00
$7.78
$10.00
$15.57
$20.00
$31.13
$50.00
$77.83
$100
$156
$500
$778
$1,000
$1,557
$5,000
$7,783
$10,000
$15,567
$100,000
$155,667
$1,000,000
$1,556,671
Inflation by spending category, 1993–2011
Between 1993 and 2011, energy rose the most, up 134.1%, while apparel fell 8.7%, against 55.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1993
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1993 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.49%
$156
Energy
4.84%
$234
Medical care
3.89%
$199
Transportation
2.75%
$163
Food
2.71%
$162
Housing
2.47%
$155
Education & communication
2.42%
$154
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.20%
$148
Recreation
1.25%
$125
Apparel
-0.50%
$91.33
Decade by decade: 1993 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 3.16% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1993–2011 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1993, at end
1993–2000
2.54%
19.2%
$119
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$151
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$156
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1993
$100 from 1993 had already become $124 by
2002, on its way to $156 in 2011; 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 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1993 had the buying
power of $156; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1993 to 2011: $100 is worth $156 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1993 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2011/