$100 in 2009 is worth $110 in 2015,
because prices increased 10.5% over that period, an average of
1.67% a year.
$100 in 2009 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.5%
Average inflation rate
1.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.48
CPI in 2009
214.537
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 2009 → 2015
$110
$100 in 2015 → 2009
$90.52
What happened to prices between 2009 and 2015
Between 2009 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 214.537 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.5%, which works out to an average of
1.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2009 bought what
$0.91 buys in 2015: the 2009 dollar
lost 9.5% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
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.
Every 2009 amount converts to 2015 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,105, and $10,000 becomes $11,048.
Amount in 2009
Value in 2015
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.52
$10.00
$11.05
$20.00
$22.10
$50.00
$55.24
$100
$110
$500
$552
$1,000
$1,105
$5,000
$5,524
$10,000
$11,048
$100,000
$110,478
$1,000,000
$1,104,784
Inflation by spending category, 2009–2015
Between 2009 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 18.9%, while recreation rose the least, up 1.5%, against 10.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2009
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2009 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.67%
$110
Medical care
2.93%
$119
Food
2.12%
$113
Transportation
1.76%
$111
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.68%
$110
Housing
1.55%
$110
Education & communication
1.37%
$108
Energy
0.83%
$105
Apparel
0.79%
$105
Recreation
0.24%
$101
Decade by decade: 2009 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 1.68% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.64% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2009–2015 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2009, at end
2009–2010
1.64%
1.6%
$102
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$110
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2009
$100 from 2009 had already become $107 by
2012, on its way to $110 in 2015; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.2% in 2011, and the smallest rise was 0.1% in 2015.
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 2009 had the buying
power of $110; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 2009 to 2015: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2009 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2015/