What America was like in 1991
You were born in…
1991
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
35
years
That’s about 12,800 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1991 cost
29¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1991 would be worth
$2.47
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1991 was
$4.25
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1991
George H. W. Bush
Since then you’ve lived under 6 presidents.
The 1990 census counted
249 million
Americans
By 2020 there were 331 million of us.
You’ve been around for
35
Super Bowls
From Super Bowl XXVI in 1992 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- Amazon sold its first book1995. You were 4.
- Google was founded1998. You were 7.
- Facebook launched2004. You were 13.
- The iPhone went on sale2007. You were 16.
- The iPad went on sale2010. You were 19.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1991 story
That was 1991.
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Where these numbers come from
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, 1982-84=100
- U.S. Postal Service, Rates for Domestic Letters Since 1863
- U.S. Department of Labor, history of federal minimum wage rates
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census resident population
- Presidents and milestones: widely documented public records.