$100 in 2004 is worth $135 in 2019,
because prices increased 35.3% over that period, an average of
2.04% a year.
$100 in 2004 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.3%
Average inflation rate
2.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.34
CPI in 2004
188.9
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 2004 → 2019
$135
$100 in 2019 → 2004
$73.89
What happened to prices between 2004 and 2019
Between 2004 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 188.9 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.3%, which works out to an average of
2.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2004 bought what
$0.74 buys in 2019: the 2004 dollar
lost 26.1% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 2019 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,353, and $10,000 becomes $13,534.
Amount in 2004
Value in 2019
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.77
$10.00
$13.53
$20.00
$27.07
$50.00
$67.67
$100
$135
$500
$677
$1,000
$1,353
$5,000
$6,767
$10,000
$13,534
$100,000
$135,340
$1,000,000
$1,353,399
Inflation by spending category, 2004–2019
Between 2004 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 60.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.0%, against 35.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2004
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2004 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.04%
$135
Medical care
3.21%
$161
Energy
2.37%
$142
Housing
2.29%
$140
Food
2.21%
$139
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.96%
$134
Transportation
1.70%
$129
Education & communication
1.42%
$123
Recreation
0.70%
$111
Apparel
0.20%
$103
Decade by decade: 2004 to 2019
Prices climbed fastest in the 2000s, averaging 2.42% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2004–2019 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2004, at end
2004–2010
2.42%
15.4%
$115
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2004
$100 from 2004 had already become $119 by
2011, on its way to $135 in 2019; 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 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 2004 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 2004 to 2019: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2004 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2019/