$100 in 1995 is worth $141 in 2009,
because prices increased 40.8% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1995 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.8%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.77
CPI in 1995
152.4
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1995 → 2009
$141
$100 in 2009 → 1995
$71.04
What happened to prices between 1995 and 2009
Between 1995 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 152.4 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.8%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1995 bought what
$0.71 buys in 2009: the 1995 dollar
lost 29.0% of its purchasing power over
these 14 years.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
Every 1995 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,408, and $10,000 becomes $14,077.
Amount in 1995
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.04
$10.00
$14.08
$20.00
$28.15
$50.00
$70.39
$100
$141
$500
$704
$1,000
$1,408
$5,000
$7,039
$10,000
$14,077
$100,000
$140,772
$1,000,000
$1,407,723
Inflation by spending category, 1995–2009
Between 1995 and 2009, energy rose the most, up 83.6%, while apparel fell 9.0%, against 40.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1995
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1995 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$141
Energy
4.43%
$184
Medical care
3.88%
$170
Food
2.78%
$147
Housing
2.75%
$146
Education & communication
2.34%
$138
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.22%
$136
Transportation
1.83%
$129
Recreation
1.37%
$121
Apparel
-0.67%
$90.97
Decade by decade: 1995 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.47% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1995–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1995, at end
1995–2000
2.47%
13.0%
$113
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1995
$100 from 1995 had already become $118 by
2002, on its way to $141 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 1995 had the buying
power of $141; 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 1995 to 2009: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1995-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1995 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1995-to-2009/