$100 in 2009 is worth $121 in 2020,
because prices increased 20.6% over that period, an average of
1.72% a year.
$100 in 2009 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.6%
Average inflation rate
1.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.64
CPI in 2009
214.537
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 2009 → 2020
$121
$100 in 2020 → 2009
$82.89
What happened to prices between 2009 and 2020
Between 2009 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 214.537 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.6%, which works out to an average of
1.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2009 bought what
$0.83 buys in 2020: the 2009 dollar
lost 17.1% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 2020 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,206, and $10,000 becomes $12,064.
Amount in 2009
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.03
$10.00
$12.06
$20.00
$24.13
$50.00
$60.32
$100
$121
$500
$603
$1,000
$1,206
$5,000
$6,032
$10,000
$12,064
$100,000
$120,637
$1,000,000
$1,206,370
Inflation by spending category, 2009–2020
Between 2009 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 38.1%, while apparel fell 1.7%, against 20.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2009
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2009 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.72%
$121
Medical care
2.98%
$138
Housing
2.06%
$125
Food
1.87%
$123
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.83%
$122
Transportation
1.06%
$112
Education & communication
0.88%
$110
Recreation
0.61%
$107
Energy
0.18%
$102
Apparel
-0.15%
$98.34
Decade by decade: 2009 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 2010s, averaging 1.73% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.64% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2009–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2009, at end
2009–2010
1.64%
1.6%
$102
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2009
$100 from 2009 had already become $110 by
2014, on its way to $121 in 2020; 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 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 2009 had the buying
power of $121; 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 2009 to 2020: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2009 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2020/