$100 in 2011 is worth $105 in 2015,
because prices increased 5.4% over that period, an average of
1.32% a year.
$100 in 2011 has
the same buying power as
$105
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
5.4%
Average inflation rate
1.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$105
Price difference ($100 base)
$5.37
CPI in 2011
224.939
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 2011 → 2015
$105
$100 in 2015 → 2011
$94.90
What happened to prices between 2011 and 2015
Between 2011 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 224.939 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 5.4%, which works out to an average of
1.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2011 bought what
$0.95 buys in 2015: the 2011 dollar
lost 5.1% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
Every 2011 amount converts to 2015 at the same ratio, 1.05: $1,000 becomes
$1,054, and $10,000 becomes $10,537.
Amount in 2011
Value in 2015
$1.00
$1.05
$5.00
$5.27
$10.00
$10.54
$20.00
$21.07
$50.00
$52.68
$100
$105
$500
$527
$1,000
$1,054
$5,000
$5,268
$10,000
$10,537
$100,000
$105,369
$1,000,000
$1,053,695
Inflation by spending category, 2011–2015
Between 2011 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 11.6%, while energy fell 16.8%, against 5.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2011
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2011 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.32%
$105
Medical care
2.79%
$112
Housing
2.10%
$109
Food
2.06%
$109
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.86%
$108
Education & communication
1.26%
$105
Apparel
0.77%
$103
Recreation
0.57%
$102
Transportation
-1.60%
$93.74
Energy
-4.50%
$83.18
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2011
$100 from 2011 had already become $104 by
2013, on its way to $105 in 2015; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.1% in 2012, and the smallest rise was 0.1% in 2015.
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 2011 had the buying
power of $105; 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 2011 to 2015: $100 is worth $105 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2011-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2011 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2011-to-2015/