$100 in 2009 is worth $126 in 2021,
because prices increased 26.3% over that period, an average of
1.97% a year.
$100 in 2009 has
the same buying power as
$126
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.3%
Average inflation rate
1.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$126
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.30
CPI in 2009
214.537
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 2009 → 2021
$126
$100 in 2021 → 2009
$79.17
What happened to prices between 2009 and 2021
Between 2009 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 214.537 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.3%, which works out to an average of
1.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2009 bought what
$0.79 buys in 2021: the 2009 dollar
lost 20.8% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 2021 at the same ratio, 1.26: $1,000 becomes
$1,263, and $10,000 becomes $12,630.
Amount in 2009
Value in 2021
$1.00
$1.26
$5.00
$6.32
$10.00
$12.63
$20.00
$25.26
$50.00
$63.15
$100
$126
$500
$632
$1,000
$1,263
$5,000
$6,315
$10,000
$12,630
$100,000
$126,305
$1,000,000
$1,263,046
Inflation by spending category, 2009–2021
Between 2009 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 39.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 0.8%, against 26.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2009
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2009 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.97%
$126
Medical care
2.83%
$140
Housing
2.17%
$129
Transportation
2.12%
$129
Food
2.04%
$127
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.98%
$126
Energy
1.77%
$123
Education & communication
0.94%
$112
Recreation
0.76%
$110
Apparel
0.06%
$101
Decade by decade: 2009 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (1.64% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2009–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$126
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2009
$100 from 2009 had already become $110 by
2015, on its way to $126 in 2021; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 4.7% in 2021, and the smallest rise was 0.1% in 2015.
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 2009 had the buying
power of $126; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 2009 to 2021: $100 is worth $126 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2009 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2009-to-2021/