$100 in 1994 is worth $145 in 2009,
because prices increased 44.8% over that period, an average of
2.50% a year.
$100 in 1994 has
the same buying power as
$145
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
44.8%
Average inflation rate
2.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$145
Price difference ($100 base)
$44.76
CPI in 1994
148.2
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1994 → 2009
$145
$100 in 2009 → 1994
$69.08
What happened to prices between 1994 and 2009
Between 1994 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 148.2 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 44.8%, which works out to an average of
2.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1994 bought what
$0.69 buys in 2009: the 1994 dollar
lost 30.9% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 2009 at the same ratio, 1.45: $1,000 becomes
$1,448, and $10,000 becomes $14,476.
Amount in 1994
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.45
$5.00
$7.24
$10.00
$14.48
$20.00
$28.95
$50.00
$72.38
$100
$145
$500
$724
$1,000
$1,448
$5,000
$7,238
$10,000
$14,476
$100,000
$144,762
$1,000,000
$1,447,618
Inflation by spending category, 1994–2009
Between 1994 and 2009, energy rose the most, up 84.6%, while apparel fell 10.0%, against 44.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1994
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1994 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.50%
$145
Energy
4.17%
$185
Medical care
3.92%
$178
Food
2.79%
$151
Housing
2.74%
$150
Education & communication
2.44%
$143
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.27%
$140
Transportation
1.94%
$133
Recreation
1.40%
$123
Apparel
-0.70%
$90.01
Decade by decade: 1994 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.53% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1994–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1994, at end
1994–2000
2.53%
16.2%
$116
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$145
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1994
$100 from 1994 had already become $120 by
2001, on its way to $145 in 2009; 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 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1994 had the buying
power of $145; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1994 to 2009: $100 is worth $145 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1994-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1994 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1994-to-2009/