$100 in 1998 is worth $159 in 2020,
because prices increased 58.8% over that period, an average of
2.12% a year.
$100 in 1998 has
the same buying power as
$159
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
58.8%
Average inflation rate
2.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$159
Price difference ($100 base)
$58.78
CPI in 1998
163
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1998 → 2020
$159
$100 in 2020 → 1998
$62.98
What happened to prices between 1998 and 2020
Between 1998 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 163 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 58.8%, which works out to an average of
2.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1998 bought what
$0.63 buys in 2020: the 1998 dollar
lost 37.0% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
Every 1998 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 1.59: $1,000 becomes
$1,588, and $10,000 becomes $15,878.
Amount in 1998
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.59
$5.00
$7.94
$10.00
$15.88
$20.00
$31.76
$50.00
$79.39
$100
$159
$500
$794
$1,000
$1,588
$5,000
$7,939
$10,000
$15,878
$100,000
$158,780
$1,000,000
$1,587,798
Inflation by spending category, 1998–2020
Between 1998 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 114.3%, while apparel fell 11.2%, against 58.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1998
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1998 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.12%
$159
Medical care
3.53%
$214
Energy
2.99%
$191
Housing
2.43%
$169
Food
2.34%
$166
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.99%
$154
Transportation
1.61%
$142
Education & communication
1.54%
$140
Recreation
0.87%
$121
Apparel
-0.54%
$88.78
Decade by decade: 1998 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1990s, averaging 2.78% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1998–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1998, at end
1998–2000
2.78%
5.6%
$106
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$134
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$159
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1998
$100 from 1998 had already become $132 by
2009, on its way to $159 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 1998 had the buying
power of $159; 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 1998 to 2020: $100 is worth $159 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1998-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1998 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1998-to-2020/