$100 in 1996 is worth $165 in 2020,
because prices increased 65.0% over that period, an average of
2.11% a year.
$100 in 1996 has
the same buying power as
$165
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
65.0%
Average inflation rate
2.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$165
Price difference ($100 base)
$64.95
CPI in 1996
156.9
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1996 → 2020
$165
$100 in 2020 → 1996
$60.62
What happened to prices between 1996 and 2020
Between 1996 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 156.9 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 65.0%, which works out to an average of
2.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1996 bought what
$0.61 buys in 2020: the 1996 dollar
lost 39.4% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2020 at the same ratio, 1.65: $1,000 becomes
$1,650, and $10,000 becomes $16,495.
Amount in 1996
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.65
$5.00
$8.25
$10.00
$16.50
$20.00
$32.99
$50.00
$82.48
$100
$165
$500
$825
$1,000
$1,650
$5,000
$8,248
$10,000
$16,495
$100,000
$164,953
$1,000,000
$1,649,528
Inflation by spending category, 1996–2020
Between 1996 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 127.4%, while apparel fell 10.3%, against 65.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1996
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1996 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.11%
$165
Medical care
3.48%
$227
Energy
2.45%
$179
Housing
2.43%
$178
Food
2.34%
$174
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.02%
$162
Education & communication
1.62%
$147
Transportation
1.44%
$141
Recreation
0.95%
$126
Apparel
-0.45%
$89.66
Decade by decade: 1996 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 2000s, averaging 2.39% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1996–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1996, at end
1996–2000
2.35%
9.8%
$110
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$139
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1996
$100 from 1996 had already become $137 by
2008, on its way to $165 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 1996 had the buying
power of $165; 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 1996 to 2020: $100 is worth $165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1996-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1996 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1996-to-2020/