$100 in 2009 is worth $119 in 2019,
because prices increased 19.2% over that period, an average of
1.77% a year.
$100 in 2009 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.2%
Average inflation rate
1.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.17
CPI in 2009
214.537
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 2009 → 2019
$119
$100 in 2019 → 2009
$83.92
What happened to prices between 2009 and 2019
Between 2009 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 214.537 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.2%, which works out to an average of
1.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2009 bought what
$0.84 buys in 2019: the 2009 dollar
lost 16.1% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 2019 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,192, and $10,000 becomes $11,917.
Amount in 2009
Value in 2019
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.96
$10.00
$11.92
$20.00
$23.83
$50.00
$59.58
$100
$119
$500
$596
$1,000
$1,192
$5,000
$5,958
$10,000
$11,917
$100,000
$119,167
$1,000,000
$1,191,669
Inflation by spending category, 2009–2019
Between 2009 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 32.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.3%, against 19.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2009
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2009 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.77%
$119
Medical care
2.87%
$133
Housing
2.05%
$123
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.84%
$120
Food
1.71%
$119
Transportation
1.60%
$117
Energy
1.09%
$111
Education & communication
0.79%
$108
Recreation
0.54%
$106
Apparel
0.33%
$103
Decade by decade: 2009 to 2019
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 1.78% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.64% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2009–2019 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2009, at end
2009–2010
1.64%
1.6%
$102
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2009
$100 from 2009 had already become $110 by
2014, on its way to $119 in 2019; 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 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 2009 had the buying
power of $119; 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 2009 to 2019: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2009 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2019/