$100 in 2015 is worth $109 in 2020,
because prices increased 9.2% over that period, an average of
1.77% a year.
$100 in 2015 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
9.2%
Average inflation rate
1.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$9.20
CPI in 2015
237.017
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 2015 → 2020
$109
$100 in 2020 → 2015
$91.58
What happened to prices between 2015 and 2020
Between 2015 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 237.017 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 9.2%, which works out to an average of
1.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2015 bought what
$0.92 buys in 2020: the 2015 dollar
lost 8.4% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
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.
Every 2015 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,092, and $10,000 becomes $10,920.
Amount in 2015
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.09
$5.00
$5.46
$10.00
$10.92
$20.00
$21.84
$50.00
$54.60
$100
$109
$500
$546
$1,000
$1,092
$5,000
$5,460
$10,000
$10,920
$100,000
$109,195
$1,000,000
$1,091,951
Inflation by spending category, 2015–2020
Between 2015 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 16.1%, while apparel fell 6.2%, against 9.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2015
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2015 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.77%
$109
Medical care
3.04%
$116
Housing
2.68%
$114
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.02%
$111
Food
1.57%
$108
Recreation
1.06%
$105
Education & communication
0.30%
$102
Transportation
0.23%
$101
Energy
-0.59%
$97.07
Apparel
-1.27%
$93.79
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2015
$100 from 2015 had already become $103 by
2017, on its way to $109 in 2020; 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 1.2% in 2020.
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 2015 had the buying
power of $109; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 2015 to 2020: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2015-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2015 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2015-to-2020/