$100 in 2017 is worth $106 in 2020,
because prices increased 5.6% over that period, an average of
1.83% a year.
$100 in 2017 has
the same buying power as
$106
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
5.6%
Average inflation rate
1.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$106
Price difference ($100 base)
$5.59
CPI in 2017
245.12
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 2017 → 2020
$106
$100 in 2020 → 2017
$94.71
What happened to prices between 2017 and 2020
Between 2017 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 245.12 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 5.6%, which works out to an average of
1.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2017 bought what
$0.95 buys in 2020: the 2017 dollar
lost 5.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
Every 2017 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 1.06: $1,000 becomes
$1,056, and $10,000 becomes $10,559.
Amount in 2017
Value in 2020
$1.00
$1.06
$5.00
$5.28
$10.00
$10.56
$20.00
$21.12
$50.00
$52.79
$100
$106
$500
$528
$1,000
$1,056
$5,000
$5,279
$10,000
$10,559
$100,000
$105,585
$1,000,000
$1,055,854
Inflation by spending category, 2017–2020
Between 2017 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 9.2%, while apparel fell 6.0%, against 5.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2017
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2017 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.83%
$106
Medical care
2.97%
$109
Housing
2.65%
$108
Food
2.24%
$107
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.01%
$106
Recreation
1.04%
$103
Education & communication
0.92%
$103
Transportation
-0.04%
$99.89
Energy
-1.25%
$96.29
Apparel
-2.04%
$94.00
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2017
$100 from 2017 had already become $102 by
2018, on its way to $106 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 2017 had the buying
power of $106; 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 2017 to 2020: $100 is worth $106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2017-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2017 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2017-to-2020/