$100 in 1995 is worth $170 in 2020,
because prices increased 69.8% over that period, an average of
2.14% a year.
$100 in 1995 has
the same buying power as
$170
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
69.8%
Average inflation rate
2.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$170
Price difference ($100 base)
$69.82
CPI in 1995
152.4
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1995 → 2020
$170
$100 in 2020 → 1995
$58.88
What happened to prices between 1995 and 2020
Between 1995 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 152.4 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 69.8%, which works out to an average of
2.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1995 bought what
$0.59 buys in 2020: the 1995 dollar
lost 41.1% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 2020 at the same ratio, 1.70: $1,000 becomes
$1,698, and $10,000 becomes $16,982.
Amount in 1995
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.70
$5.00
$8.49
$10.00
$16.98
$20.00
$33.96
$50.00
$84.91
$100
$170
$500
$849
$1,000
$1,698
$5,000
$8,491
$10,000
$16,982
$100,000
$169,823
$1,000,000
$1,698,235
Inflation by spending category, 1995–2020
Between 1995 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 135.3%, while apparel fell 10.5%, against 69.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1995
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1995 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.14%
$170
Medical care
3.48%
$235
Energy
2.54%
$187
Housing
2.45%
$183
Food
2.38%
$180
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.05%
$166
Education & communication
1.69%
$152
Transportation
1.49%
$145
Recreation
1.03%
$129
Apparel
-0.44%
$89.45
Decade by decade: 1995 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.47% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1995–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1995, at end
1995–2000
2.47%
13.0%
$113
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$143
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$170
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1995
$100 from 1995 had already become $136 by
2007, on its way to $170 in 2020; 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 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1995 had the buying
power of $170; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1995 to 2020: $100 is worth $170 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1995-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1995 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1995-to-2020/