$100 in 2004 is worth $114 in 2009,
because prices increased 13.6% over that period, an average of
2.58% a year.
$100 in 2004 has
the same buying power as
$114
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.6%
Average inflation rate
2.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$114
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.57
CPI in 2004
188.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 2004 → 2009
$114
$100 in 2009 → 2004
$88.05
What happened to prices between 2004 and 2009
Between 2004 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 188.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.6%, which works out to an average of
2.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2004 bought what
$0.88 buys in 2009: the 2004 dollar
lost 11.9% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
Every 2004 amount converts to 2009 at the same ratio, 1.14: $1,000 becomes
$1,136, and $10,000 becomes $11,357.
Amount in 2004
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.14
$5.00
$5.68
$10.00
$11.36
$20.00
$22.71
$50.00
$56.79
$100
$114
$500
$568
$1,000
$1,136
$5,000
$5,679
$10,000
$11,357
$100,000
$113,572
$1,000,000
$1,135,717
Inflation by spending category, 2004–2009
Between 2004 and 2009, energy rose the most, up 27.6%, while apparel fell 0.3%, against 13.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2004
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2004 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.58%
$114
Energy
4.99%
$128
Medical care
3.91%
$121
Food
3.20%
$117
Housing
2.75%
$115
Education & communication
2.68%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.20%
$112
Transportation
1.91%
$110
Recreation
1.02%
$105
Apparel
-0.05%
$99.73
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2004
$100 from 2004 had already become $107 by
2006, on its way to $114 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 2004 had the buying
power of $114; 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 2004 to 2009: $100 is worth $114 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2004 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2009/