$100 in 2011 is worth $114 in 2019,
because prices increased 13.7% over that period, an average of
1.61% a year.
$100 in 2011 has
the same buying power as
$114
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.7%
Average inflation rate
1.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$114
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.66
CPI in 2011
224.939
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 2011 → 2019
$114
$100 in 2019 → 2011
$87.98
What happened to prices between 2011 and 2019
Between 2011 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 224.939 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.7%, which works out to an average of
1.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2011 bought what
$0.88 buys in 2019: the 2011 dollar
lost 12.0% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 2019 at the same ratio, 1.14: $1,000 becomes
$1,137, and $10,000 becomes $11,366.
Amount in 2011
Value in 2019
$1.00
$1.14
$5.00
$5.68
$10.00
$11.37
$20.00
$22.73
$50.00
$56.83
$100
$114
$500
$568
$1,000
$1,137
$5,000
$5,683
$10,000
$11,366
$100,000
$113,656
$1,000,000
$1,136,561
Inflation by spending category, 2011–2019
Between 2011 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 24.5%, while energy fell 11.7%, against 13.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2011
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2011 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.61%
$114
Medical care
2.78%
$125
Housing
2.45%
$121
Core (all items less food & energy)
1.98%
$117
Food
1.58%
$113
Recreation
0.78%
$106
Education & communication
0.59%
$105
Apparel
0.20%
$102
Transportation
-0.14%
$98.92
Energy
-1.55%
$88.27
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2011
$100 from 2011 had already become $105 by
2015, on its way to $114 in 2019; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.4% in 2018, and the smallest rise was 0.1% in 2015.
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 2011 had the buying
power of $114; 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 2011 to 2019: $100 is worth $114 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2011-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2011 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2011-to-2019/