$100 in 1994 is worth $127 in 2004,
because prices increased 27.5% over that period, an average of
2.46% a year.
$100 in 1994 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
27.5%
Average inflation rate
2.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$27.46
CPI in 1994
148.2
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1994 → 2004
$127
$100 in 2004 → 1994
$78.45
What happened to prices between 1994 and 2004
Between 1994 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 148.2 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 27.5%, which works out to an average of
2.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1994 bought what
$0.78 buys in 2004: the 1994 dollar
lost 21.5% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
Every 1994 amount converts to 2004 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,275, and $10,000 becomes $12,746.
Amount in 1994
Value in 2004
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.37
$10.00
$12.75
$20.00
$25.49
$50.00
$63.73
$100
$127
$500
$637
$1,000
$1,275
$5,000
$6,373
$10,000
$12,746
$100,000
$127,463
$1,000,000
$1,274,629
Inflation by spending category, 1994–2004
Between 1994 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 47.0%, while apparel fell 9.7%, against 27.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1994
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1994 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.46%
$127
Medical care
3.93%
$147
Energy
3.77%
$145
Housing
2.73%
$131
Food
2.58%
$129
Education & communication
2.31%
$126
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.31%
$126
Transportation
1.96%
$121
Recreation
1.60%
$117
Apparel
-1.02%
$90.25
Decade by decade: 1994 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.53% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1994–2004 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1994, at end
1994–2000
2.53%
16.2%
$116
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$127
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1994
$100 from 1994 had already become $112 by
1999, on its way to $127 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 1994 had the buying
power of $127; 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 1994 to 2004: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1994-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1994 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1994-to-2004/