$100 in 1997 is worth $161 in 2020,
because prices increased 61.3% over that period, an average of
2.10% a year.
$100 in 1997 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
61.3%
Average inflation rate
2.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$61.25
CPI in 1997
160.5
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1997 → 2020
$161
$100 in 2020 → 1997
$62.01
What happened to prices between 1997 and 2020
Between 1997 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 160.5 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 61.3%, which works out to an average of
2.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1997 bought what
$0.62 buys in 2020: the 1997 dollar
lost 38.0% of its purchasing power over
these 23 years.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
Every 1997 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,613, and $10,000 becomes $16,125.
Amount in 1997
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.06
$10.00
$16.13
$20.00
$32.25
$50.00
$80.63
$100
$161
$500
$806
$1,000
$1,613
$5,000
$8,063
$10,000
$16,125
$100,000
$161,253
$1,000,000
$1,612,530
Inflation by spending category, 1997–2020
Between 1997 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 121.2%, while apparel fell 11.2%, against 61.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1997
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1997 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.10%
$161
Medical care
3.51%
$221
Energy
2.50%
$177
Housing
2.42%
$173
Food
2.33%
$170
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.01%
$158
Education & communication
1.55%
$143
Transportation
1.46%
$140
Recreation
0.89%
$123
Apparel
-0.51%
$88.85
Decade by decade: 1997 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 1997–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1997, at end
1997–2000
2.37%
7.3%
$107
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$136
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$161
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1997
$100 from 1997 had already become $134 by
2008, on its way to $161 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 1997 had the buying
power of $161; 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 1997 to 2020: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1997-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1997 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1997-to-2020/