Value of $100 in 1994, adjusted to 2026

What happened to prices between 1994 and 2026

Between 1994 and 2026, the Consumer Price Index went from 148.2 to 332.243. Cumulatively, prices increased 124.2%, which works out to an average of 2.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1994 bought what $0.45 buys in 2026: the 1994 dollar lost 55.4% of its purchasing power over these 32 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.

More about inflation in 1994 →

The destination year: 2026

In 2026, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1994 had the buying power of $224; the year's average CPI of 332.243 is the level behind every 2026 figure on this page.