$100 in 2004 is worth $119 in 2011,
because prices increased 19.1% over that period, an average of
2.53% a year.
$100 in 2004 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.1%
Average inflation rate
2.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.08
CPI in 2004
188.9
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 2004 → 2011
$119
$100 in 2011 → 2004
$83.98
What happened to prices between 2004 and 2011
Between 2004 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 188.9 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.1%, which works out to an average of
2.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2004 bought what
$0.84 buys in 2011: the 2004 dollar
lost 16.0% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 2011 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,191, and $10,000 becomes $11,908.
Amount in 2004
Value in 2011
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.95
$10.00
$11.91
$20.00
$23.82
$50.00
$59.54
$100
$119
$500
$595
$1,000
$1,191
$5,000
$5,954
$10,000
$11,908
$100,000
$119,078
$1,000,000
$1,190,783
Inflation by spending category, 2004–2011
Between 2004 and 2011, energy rose the most, up 61.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.4%, against 19.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2004
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2004 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.53%
$119
Energy
7.05%
$161
Transportation
3.84%
$130
Medical care
3.71%
$129
Food
2.93%
$122
Education & communication
2.37%
$118
Housing
2.10%
$116
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.95%
$114
Recreation
0.61%
$104
Apparel
0.20%
$101
Decade by decade: 2004 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 3.16% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.42% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2004–2011 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2004, at end
2004–2010
2.42%
15.4%
$115
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2004
$100 from 2004 had already become $110 by
2007, on its way to $119 in 2011; 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 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 2004 had the buying
power of $119; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 2004 to 2011: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2004 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2011/