$100 in 2011 is worth $120 in 2021,
because prices increased 20.5% over that period, an average of
1.88% a year.
$100 in 2011 has
the same buying power as
$120
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.5%
Average inflation rate
1.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$120
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.46
CPI in 2011
224.939
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 2011 → 2021
$120
$100 in 2021 → 2011
$83.01
What happened to prices between 2011 and 2021
Between 2011 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 224.939 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.5%, which works out to an average of
1.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2011 bought what
$0.83 buys in 2021: the 2011 dollar
lost 17.0% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 2021 at the same ratio, 1.20: $1,000 becomes
$1,205, and $10,000 becomes $12,046.
Amount in 2011
Value in 2021
$1.00
$1.20
$5.00
$6.02
$10.00
$12.05
$20.00
$24.09
$50.00
$60.23
$100
$120
$500
$602
$1,000
$1,205
$5,000
$6,023
$10,000
$12,046
$100,000
$120,464
$1,000,000
$1,204,638
Inflation by spending category, 2011–2021
Between 2011 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 31.2%, while energy fell 2.3%, against 20.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2011
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2011 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.88%
$120
Medical care
2.76%
$131
Housing
2.51%
$128
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.11%
$123
Food
2.00%
$122
Recreation
1.00%
$110
Transportation
0.83%
$109
Education & communication
0.82%
$108
Apparel
-0.09%
$99.08
Energy
-0.23%
$97.71
Decade by decade: 2011 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.57% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2011–2021 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2011, at end
2011–2020
1.57%
15.1%
$115
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$120
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2011
$100 from 2011 had already become $107 by
2016, on its way to $120 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 2011 had the buying
power of $120; 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 2011 to 2021: $100 is worth $120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2011-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2011 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2011-to-2021/