$100 in 2004 is worth $137 in 2020,
because prices increased 37.0% over that period, an average of
1.99% a year.
$100 in 2004 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.0%
Average inflation rate
1.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.01
CPI in 2004
188.9
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 2004 → 2020
$137
$100 in 2020 → 2004
$72.99
What happened to prices between 2004 and 2020
Between 2004 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 188.9 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.0%, which works out to an average of
1.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2004 bought what
$0.73 buys in 2020: the 2004 dollar
lost 27.0% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 2020 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,370, and $10,000 becomes $13,701.
Amount in 2004
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.85
$10.00
$13.70
$20.00
$27.40
$50.00
$68.50
$100
$137
$500
$685
$1,000
$1,370
$5,000
$6,850
$10,000
$13,701
$100,000
$137,010
$1,000,000
$1,370,095
Inflation by spending category, 2004–2020
Between 2004 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 67.3%, while apparel fell 1.9%, against 37.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2004
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2004 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.99%
$137
Medical care
3.27%
$167
Food
2.28%
$144
Housing
2.28%
$143
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.95%
$136
Energy
1.66%
$130
Education & communication
1.44%
$126
Transportation
1.32%
$123
Recreation
0.74%
$113
Apparel
-0.12%
$98.07
Decade by decade: 2004 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 2000s, averaging 2.42% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2004–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2004, at end
2004–2010
2.42%
15.4%
$115
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2004
$100 from 2004 had already become $122 by
2012, on its way to $137 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 2004 had the buying
power of $137; 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 2004 to 2020: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2004 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2004-to-2020/