$100 in 1993 is worth $170 in 2017,
because prices increased 69.6% over that period, an average of
2.23% a year.
$100 in 1993 has
the same buying power as
$170
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.6%
Average inflation rate
2.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$170
Price difference ($100 base)
$69.63
CPI in 1993
144.5
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1993 → 2017
$170
$100 in 2017 → 1993
$58.95
What happened to prices between 1993 and 2017
Between 1993 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 144.5 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.6%, which works out to an average of
2.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1993 bought what
$0.59 buys in 2017: the 1993 dollar
lost 41.0% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2017 at the same ratio, 1.70: $1,000 becomes
$1,696, and $10,000 becomes $16,963.
Amount in 1993
Value in 2017
$1.00
$1.70
$5.00
$8.48
$10.00
$16.96
$20.00
$33.93
$50.00
$84.82
$100
$170
$500
$848
$1,000
$1,696
$5,000
$8,482
$10,000
$16,963
$100,000
$169,633
$1,000,000
$1,696,332
Inflation by spending category, 1993–2017
Between 1993 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 136.0%, while apparel fell 6.0%, against 69.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1993
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1993 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.23%
$170
Medical care
3.64%
$236
Energy
2.85%
$196
Housing
2.43%
$178
Food
2.42%
$177
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.13%
$166
Education & communication
1.97%
$160
Transportation
1.83%
$155
Recreation
1.12%
$131
Apparel
-0.26%
$93.95
Decade by decade: 1993 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.54% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1993–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$170
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1993
$100 from 1993 had already become $135 by
2005, on its way to $170 in 2017; 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 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1993 had the buying
power of $170; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1993 to 2017: $100 is worth $170 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1993 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2017/