$100 in 1993 is worth $188 in 2021,
because prices increased 87.5% over that period, an average of
2.27% a year.
$100 in 1993 has
the same buying power as
$188
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.5%
Average inflation rate
2.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$188
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.52
CPI in 1993
144.5
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1993 → 2021
$188
$100 in 2021 → 1993
$53.33
What happened to prices between 1993 and 2021
Between 1993 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 144.5 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.5%, which works out to an average of
2.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1993 bought what
$0.53 buys in 2021: the 1993 dollar
lost 46.7% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 2021 at the same ratio, 1.88: $1,000 becomes
$1,875, and $10,000 becomes $18,752.
Amount in 1993
Value in 2021
$1.00
$1.88
$5.00
$9.38
$10.00
$18.75
$20.00
$37.50
$50.00
$93.76
$100
$188
$500
$938
$1,000
$1,875
$5,000
$9,376
$10,000
$18,752
$100,000
$187,522
$1,000,000
$1,875,225
Inflation by spending category, 1993–2021
Between 1993 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 160.8%, while apparel fell 9.5%, against 87.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1993
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1993 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.27%
$188
Medical care
3.48%
$261
Energy
3.00%
$229
Housing
2.48%
$199
Food
2.45%
$197
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.17%
$182
Transportation
2.06%
$177
Education & communication
1.84%
$167
Recreation
1.16%
$138
Apparel
-0.36%
$90.50
Decade by decade: 1993 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1993–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$179
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$188
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1993
$100 from 1993 had already become $143 by
2007, on its way to $188 in 2021; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.7% in 2021, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1993 had the buying
power of $188; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1993 to 2021: $100 is worth $188 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1993 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1993-to-2021/