$100 in 2007 is worth $125 in 2020,
because prices increased 24.8% over that period, an average of
1.72% a year.
$100 in 2007 has
the same buying power as
$125
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
24.8%
Average inflation rate
1.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$125
Price difference ($100 base)
$24.82
CPI in 2007
207.342
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 2007 → 2020
$125
$100 in 2020 → 2007
$80.11
What happened to prices between 2007 and 2020
Between 2007 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 207.342 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 24.8%, which works out to an average of
1.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2007 bought what
$0.80 buys in 2020: the 2007 dollar
lost 19.9% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
Every 2007 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 1.25: $1,000 becomes
$1,248, and $10,000 becomes $12,482.
Amount in 2007
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.25
$5.00
$6.24
$10.00
$12.48
$20.00
$24.96
$50.00
$62.41
$100
$125
$500
$624
$1,000
$1,248
$5,000
$6,241
$10,000
$12,482
$100,000
$124,823
$1,000,000
$1,248,232
Inflation by spending category, 2007–2020
Between 2007 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 47.8%, while energy fell 5.2%, against 24.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2007
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2007 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.72%
$125
Medical care
3.05%
$148
Food
2.14%
$132
Housing
2.02%
$130
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.86%
$127
Education & communication
1.24%
$117
Recreation
0.71%
$110
Transportation
0.67%
$109
Apparel
-0.06%
$99.23
Energy
-0.41%
$94.81
Decade by decade: 2007 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 1.73% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2007–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2007, at end
2007–2010
1.69%
5.2%
$105
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$125
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2007
$100 from 2007 had already become $112 by
2013, on its way to $125 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 2007 had the buying
power of $125; 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 2007 to 2020: $100 is worth $125 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2007-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2007 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2007-to-2020/