$100 in 2000 is worth $150 in 2020,
because prices increased 50.3% over that period, an average of
2.06% a year.
$100 in 2000 has
the same buying power as
$150
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
50.3%
Average inflation rate
2.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$150
Price difference ($100 base)
$50.30
CPI in 2000
172.2
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 2000 → 2020
$150
$100 in 2020 → 2000
$66.54
What happened to prices between 2000 and 2020
Between 2000 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 172.2 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 50.3%, which works out to an average of
2.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2000 bought what
$0.67 buys in 2020: the 2000 dollar
lost 33.5% of its purchasing power over
these 20 years.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
Every 2000 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 1.50: $1,000 becomes
$1,503, and $10,000 becomes $15,030.
Amount in 2000
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.50
$5.00
$7.51
$10.00
$15.03
$20.00
$30.06
$50.00
$75.15
$100
$150
$500
$751
$1,000
$1,503
$5,000
$7,515
$10,000
$15,030
$100,000
$150,297
$1,000,000
$1,502,967
Inflation by spending category, 2000–2020
Between 2000 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 99.0%, while apparel fell 8.9%, against 50.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2000
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2000 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.06%
$150
Medical care
3.50%
$199
Housing
2.39%
$160
Food
2.35%
$159
Energy
2.32%
$158
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.97%
$148
Education & communication
1.58%
$137
Transportation
1.37%
$131
Recreation
0.85%
$118
Apparel
-0.46%
$91.11
Decade by decade: 2000 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 2000–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2000, at end
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$127
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$150
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2000
$100 from 2000 had already become $127 by
2010, on its way to $150 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 2000 had the buying
power of $150; 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 2000 to 2020: $100 is worth $150 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2000-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2000 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2000-to-2020/