$100 in 2017 is worth $111 in 2021,
because prices increased 10.5% over that period, an average of
2.54% a year.
$100 in 2017 has
the same buying power as
$111
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.5%
Average inflation rate
2.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$111
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.55
CPI in 2017
245.12
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 2017 → 2021
$111
$100 in 2021 → 2017
$90.46
What happened to prices between 2017 and 2021
Between 2017 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 245.12 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.5%, which works out to an average of
2.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 2017 bought what
$0.90 buys in 2021: the 2017 dollar
lost 9.5% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 2021 at the same ratio, 1.11: $1,000 becomes
$1,105, and $10,000 becomes $11,055.
Amount in 2017
Value in 2021
$1.00
$1.11
$5.00
$5.53
$10.00
$11.05
$20.00
$22.11
$50.00
$55.27
$100
$111
$500
$553
$1,000
$1,105
$5,000
$5,527
$10,000
$11,055
$100,000
$110,546
$1,000,000
$1,105,459
Inflation by spending category, 2017–2021
Between 2017 and 2021, energy rose the most, up 16.5%, while apparel fell 3.7%, against 10.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 2017
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 2017 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.54%
$111
Energy
3.90%
$117
Transportation
3.43%
$114
Housing
2.81%
$112
Food
2.66%
$111
Medical care
2.53%
$111
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.40%
$110
Recreation
1.38%
$106
Education & communication
1.10%
$104
Apparel
-0.93%
$96.32
Decade by decade: 2017 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.83% a year). Each step below chains into the full 2017–2021 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 2017, at end
2017–2020
1.83%
5.6%
$106
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$111
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 2017
$100 from 2017 had already become $104 by
2019, on its way to $111 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 2017 had the buying
power of $111; 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 2017 to 2021: $100 is worth $111 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2017-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 2017 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/2017-to-2021/