$100 in 2012 is worth $118 in 2021,
because prices increased 18.0% over that period, an average of
1.86% a year.
$100 in 2012 has
the same buying power as
$118
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
18.0%
Average inflation rate
1.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$118
Price difference ($100 base)
$18.02
CPI in 2012
229.594
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 2012 → 2021
$118
$100 in 2021 → 2012
$84.73
What happened to prices between 2012 and 2021
Between 2012 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 229.594 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 18.0%, which works out to an average of
1.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2012 bought what
$0.85 buys in 2021: the 2012 dollar
lost 15.3% of its purchasing power over
these 9 years.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
Every 2012 amount converts to 2021 at the same ratio, 1.18: $1,000 becomes
$1,180, and $10,000 becomes $11,802.
Amount in 2012
Value in 2021
$1.00
$1.18
$5.00
$5.90
$10.00
$11.80
$20.00
$23.60
$50.00
$59.01
$100
$118
$500
$590
$1,000
$1,180
$5,000
$5,901
$10,000
$11,802
$100,000
$118,021
$1,000,000
$1,180,214
Inflation by spending category, 2012–2021
Between 2012 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 26.6%, while apparel fell 4.2%, against 18.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2012
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2012 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.86%
$118
Medical care
2.65%
$127
Housing
2.61%
$126
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.11%
$121
Food
1.93%
$119
Recreation
0.98%
$109
Education & communication
0.71%
$107
Transportation
0.66%
$106
Energy
-0.36%
$96.85
Apparel
-0.47%
$95.82
Decade by decade: 2012 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.51% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2012–2021 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2012, at end
2012–2020
1.51%
12.7%
$113
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$118
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2012
$100 from 2012 had already become $105 by
2016, on its way to $118 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 2012 had the buying
power of $118; 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 2012 to 2021: $100 is worth $118 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2012-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2012 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2012-to-2021/