$100 in 2015 is worth $114 in 2021,
because prices increased 14.3% over that period, an average of
2.26% a year.
$100 in 2015 has
the same buying power as
$114
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
14.3%
Average inflation rate
2.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$114
Price difference ($100 base)
$14.33
CPI in 2015
237.017
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 2015 → 2021
$114
$100 in 2021 → 2015
$87.47
What happened to prices between 2015 and 2021
Between 2015 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 237.017 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 14.3%, which works out to an average of
2.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2015 bought what
$0.87 buys in 2021: the 2015 dollar
lost 12.5% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 2021 at the same ratio, 1.14: $1,000 becomes
$1,143, and $10,000 becomes $11,433.
Amount in 2015
Value in 2021
$1.00
$1.14
$5.00
$5.72
$10.00
$11.43
$20.00
$22.87
$50.00
$57.16
$100
$114
$500
$572
$1,000
$1,143
$5,000
$5,716
$10,000
$11,433
$100,000
$114,325
$1,000,000
$1,143,251
Inflation by spending category, 2015–2021
Between 2015 and 2021, housing rose the most, up 17.9%, while apparel fell 3.9%, against 14.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2015
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2015 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.26%
$114
Housing
2.79%
$118
Medical care
2.74%
$118
Energy
2.72%
$117
Transportation
2.49%
$116
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.28%
$114
Food
1.96%
$112
Recreation
1.29%
$108
Education & communication
0.52%
$103
Apparel
-0.66%
$96.10
Decade by decade: 2015 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.77% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2015–2021 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2015, at end
2015–2020
1.77%
9.2%
$109
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$114
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2015
$100 from 2015 had already become $106 by
2018, on its way to $114 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 1.2% in 2020.
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 2015 had the buying
power of $114; 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 2015 to 2021: $100 is worth $114 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2015-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2015 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2015-to-2021/