Tools / Investing
Inflation calculator
An amount, a starting year, an ending year. The equivalent value, the annualized rate, and the purchasing power lost, on official CPI-U data.
×1.870 over 25 years · 2.54% per year
Source: BLS CPI-U, annual averages (US city average, all items, 1982-84 = 100), 1990 to 2025. Live monthly data lands with the data pipeline. CPI tracks a fixed consumption basket; your personal inflation rate differs.
Year-by-year table
| Year | CPI-U | Equivalent value |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 172.2 | $1,000.00 |
| 2005 | 195.3 | $1,134.15 |
| 2010 | 218.1 | $1,266.55 |
| 2015 | 237.0 | $1,376.31 |
| 2020 | 258.8 | $1,502.90 |
| 2025 | 322.1 | $1,870.50 |
What the calculation actually is
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, CPI-U, which tracks the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services against a 1982-84 base of 100. Converting money between years is one division: the amount times the ending year's index over the starting year's index. This page embeds the published annual averages from 1990 through 2025, so every result traces to an official number rather than an estimate. Live monthly data lands when our data pipeline does.
A worked example you can check
The CPI-U annual average was 130.7 in 1990 and 322.1 in 2025. So $100 from 1990 needs 100 times 322.1 over 130.7, which is $246.44, to buy roughly what it bought then. Run the ratio the other way and a 1990 dollar keeps 130.7 over 322.1, about 40.6 cents, of its purchasing power: a 59.4% loss. Spread across 35 years the annualized rate is 2.61%, which sounds mild. That is the point of the chart above: a rate that never makes headlines still cuts a dollar's buying power by more than half over a working life.
Salary equivalence
The same ratio answers the raise question. A $50,000 salary in 2000, when the index averaged 172.2, needs 50,000 times 322.1 over 172.2, about $93,500, in 2025 just to tread water. Anyone whose pay grew less than the multiplier took a real pay cut, whatever the nominal number did. This is also the honest deflator for old investment stories: a fund that "tripled since 2000" turned $1 into $3 nominal, but 2025 dollars are worth 172.2 over 322.1 as much, so the real multiple is closer to 1.6.
What CPI does not capture
CPI-U measures one average urban basket. Your personal inflation runs hotter if your spending tilts toward housing, tuition, or medical care, and cooler if it tilts toward electronics. The index also folds in quality adjustments, so it tracks the cost of living at a constant standard rather than the sticker price of identical goods. Treat the output as the official average, a floor for salary negotiations and a deflator for old dollar figures, not a personal cost-of-living meter. For what inflation does to a portfolio over decades, the compound interest calculator at a real return is the companion tool.
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