What your money was worth
Enter an amount and a year. The calculator shows what it is worth in today’s prices and how much buying power the same sum has lost — over the last 30 years, 53% of it.
1950 to 2024
$100 in 1994 is $212 in 2024.
For scale: the median US household earned $32,260 in 1994 and $83,730 in 2024. In 1994 prices that is $39,564.
| Year | $100 from 1994 is worth | Prices since 1994 |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | $100 | 0.0% |
| 2000 | $116 | 16.2% |
| 2010 | $147 | 47.1% |
| 2020 | $175 | 74.6% |
| 2024 | $212 | 111.6% |
Educational estimate, not financial advice. Everything is calculated in your browser — nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
How this calculator works
The calculator multiplies your amount by the ratio of two annual averages of the consumer price index: amount × CPI(target year) ÷ CPI(source year). The index has no unit of its own; only the ratio between two years means anything.
Annual averages come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics series CUUR0000SA0. For the current year the average is taken over the months published so far, so it moves slightly with each release.
Common questions
What is $100 from 1995 worth in 2024?
$206. Prices rose 105.9% between 1995 and 2024, an average of 2.52% a year. Put the other way round, $100 kept under a mattress since 1995 buys what $49 bought then.
Which inflation measure is this?
The CPI-U: the consumer price index for all urban consumers, all items, US city average, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The calculator uses annual averages, so a year is compared with a whole year, not with a single month.
Why does it not match my own experience?
The CPI is one basket for the whole country. Rent in your city, the car you drive and whether you have children move your personal inflation rate away from the average, sometimes by several points.
Does this have anything to do with the national debt?
Inflation lowers the real value of money already borrowed, which quietly shrinks old debt, and it raises the interest rate lenders demand on new debt. Both are why the interest bill on the federal debt has grown so fast.
Sources
- Consumer prices (CPI-U, annual average)US Bureau of Labor Statistics — CPI-U, all items, US city average, annual average1950–2024
- Median household incomeUS Census Bureau — Historical Income Tables, Table H-5 (all races), current dollars
All figures are fetched from the publishers above when this site is built; your browser does not contact them. This site is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the Federal Reserve System, any Federal Reserve Bank or any government agency. Nothing here is financial advice.