$100 in 1996 is worth $137 in 2009,
because prices increased 36.7% over that period, an average of
2.44% a year.
$100 in 1996 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
36.7%
Average inflation rate
2.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$36.73
CPI in 1996
156.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1996 → 2009
$137
$100 in 2009 → 1996
$73.13
What happened to prices between 1996 and 2009
Between 1996 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 156.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 36.7%, which works out to an average of
2.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1996 bought what
$0.73 buys in 2009: the 1996 dollar
lost 26.9% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
Every 1996 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,367, and $10,000 becomes $13,673.
Amount in 1996
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.84
$10.00
$13.67
$20.00
$27.35
$50.00
$68.37
$100
$137
$500
$684
$1,000
$1,367
$5,000
$6,837
$10,000
$13,673
$100,000
$136,735
$1,000,000
$1,367,349
Inflation by spending category, 1996–2009
Between 1996 and 2009, energy rose the most, up 75.4%, while apparel fell 8.8%, against 36.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1996
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1996 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.44%
$137
Energy
4.42%
$175
Medical care
3.91%
$165
Food
2.74%
$142
Housing
2.74%
$142
Education & communication
2.26%
$134
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.18%
$132
Transportation
1.75%
$125
Recreation
1.24%
$117
Apparel
-0.71%
$91.18
Decade by decade: 1996 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 2000s, averaging 2.47% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.35% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1996–2009 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1996, at end
1996–2000
2.35%
9.8%
$110
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1996
$100 from 1996 had already become $115 by
2002, on its way to $137 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 1996 had the buying
power of $137; 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 1996 to 2009: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1996-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1996 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1996-to-2009/