The year 2001 · in the United States and the world

What happened in 2001

The cost of living, the songs at #1, the news and the people in charge in 2001, rebuilt from public records. Born that year? Your exact day has its own story.

See your exact day →Prices in 2001#1 songsEvents

Gallon of gas

$1.46

$4.48 today

President

Bill Clinton → George W. Bush

Biggest #1

“All For You”

Janet

$1 then is

$1.90

in today’s money

01 · Cost of living

How much things cost in 2001

U.S. average prices for 2001, next to the latest official figure (Sep 2026). By the Consumer Price Index, $1 in 2001 buys what $1.90 buys today.

GENERAL STORE

U.S. AVERAGE PRICES · 2001

ITEM2001TODAYGallon of gasregular unleaded$1.46$4.48Loaf of white breadper lb100¢$1.83Gallon of milkwhole$2.88$4.11Dozen eggsgrade A large93¢$2.27Pound of coffeeground roast$3.09$9.33Postage stampfirst-class letter34¢78¢Median new homeUS sale price$173,100$393,300Minimum wagefederal, per hour$5.15$7.25

GALLON OF GAS COSTS 3.1× WHAT IT DID

Yearly averages · wage and stamp on July 1

Gas: drivers paid $1.46 for a gallon of regular in 2001. Filling a 15-gallon tank cost about $21.92, against roughly $67.23 now.

Groceries: one hour at the federal minimum wage ($5.15) bought about 5 pounds of white bread in 2001. Today it buys about 3.

Housing: the median new home sold for $173,100, or about 16 years of full-time work at the minimum wage. Today the median is $393,300.

Mail: a first-class stamp cost 34¢ (the rate changed in 2001: 34¢ from January 7, 2001). It is 78¢ now.

Stocks: the S&P 500 now stands about 6.4× its average level in 2001 (price only, before dividends and inflation).

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average prices, Census Bureau and Department of Labor viaFRED; USPS rate history; S&P from Robert Shiller’s public data.

02 · On the radio

The #1 songs of 2001

15 songs reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001. The one that stayed longest:

“All For You”

Janet · 7 weeks at #1 in 2001

Tap the cover for a 30-second preview

Spotify ↗Apple Music ↗YouTube ↗
  1. Jan 6Independent Women Part IDestiny's Child4 wks
  2. Feb 3It Wasn't MeShaggy Feat. Ricardo "RikRok" Ducent2 wks
  3. Feb 17Ms. JacksonOutKast1 wk
  4. Feb 24StutterJoe Featuring Mystikal4 wks
  5. Mar 24ButterflyCrazy Town2 wks
  6. Mar 31AngelShaggy Featuring Rayvon1 wk
  7. Apr 14All For YouJanet7 wks
  8. Jun 2Lady MarmaladeChristina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya & P!nk5 wks
  9. Jul 7U Remind MeUsher4 wks
  10. Aug 4BootyliciousDestiny's Child2 wks
  11. Aug 18Fallin'Alicia Keys6 wks
  12. Sep 8I'm RealJennifer Lopez Featuring Ja Rule5 wks
  13. Nov 3Family AffairMary J. Blige6 wks
  14. Dec 15U Got It BadUsher1 wk
  15. Dec 22How You Remind MeNickelback2 wks

Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 2001; weeks count only those in 2001.Find the #1 song on your birthday →

Your day, not just your year

Born in 2001? Meet your day.

The weather in your city, the moon over it and the song on the radio the day you arrived in 2001.

See your exact day →

The weather, the sky and the #1 song from that exact day, in your city

03 · The news

Major events of 2001

Moments from 2001 that are still remembered, in date order.

  1. Jan 16US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.
  2. Feb 12The NASA space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
  3. Feb 18American FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested for having spied for the KGB and GRU over a 22-year period.
  4. Jun 5Tropical Storm Allison, the costliest Atlantic tropical cyclone that was never a hurricane, made landfall in Texas, causing approximately $8.5 billion in damage.
  5. Jun 11Timothy McVeigh, detonator of a truck bomb in front of the Oklahoma federal building, was executed by lethal injection for using a weapon of mass destruction, among other charges.
  6. Aug 25American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company were killed when their overloaded aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport in The Bahamas.
  7. Sep 11al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners to carry out a series of terrorist attacks against targets in New York City and the area of Washington, D.C., killing 2,977 people.
  8. Sep 13Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks.
  9. Sep 17The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
  10. Oct 26President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law, significantly expanding the authority of United States law enforcement agencies.
  11. Nov 12American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into residential buildings five minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing a total of 265 people.
  12. Nov 13War on terror: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
  13. Dec 2Less than two months after disclosing accounting violations, the Texas-based energy firm Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, evaporating nearly $11 billion in shareholder wealth.
  14. Dec 15The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.

Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.

04 · Who was in charge

The president and world leaders in 2001

  • U.S. President

    Bill Clinton → George W. Bush

  • UK Prime Minister

    Tony Blair

  • Prime Minister of Canada

    Jean Chrétien

  • German Chancellor

    Gerhard Schröder

  • Prime Minister of Japan

    Yoshirō Mori → Junichiro Koizumi

  • President of Russia

    Vladimir Putin

Everyone who held the office at some point in 2001, from Wikidata.

05 · At the movies and on TV

Films and TV of 2001

Best Picture at the 2001 Oscars

Gladiator

honouring films of 2000

The 2001 film that won next spring

A Beautiful Mind

Best Picture at the 2002 Oscars

American films released

  • Shrek
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • Monsters, Inc.
  • A Beautiful Mind
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire

New on American TV

  • 24
  • Smallville
  • The Fairly OddParents
  • Scrubs

A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.

06 · Born in 2001

Famous people born in 2001

Anyone born in 2001 belongs to the Generation Z (1997–2012).

From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Quick answers

Quick answers about 2001

How much was gas in 2001?

A gallon of regular unleaded gas cost $1.46 on average in 2001, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest national average is $4.48 (Sep 2026), about 3.1× as much.

What was the #1 song of 2001?

“All For You” by Janet spent the most weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001: 7 weeks. 15 different songs reached #1 that year.

Who was president in 2001?

Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both served as President of the United States during 2001.

How much is $1 from 2001 worth today?

Prices have risen about 1.9× since 2001, so $1 then buys what about $1.90 buys today, by the Consumer Price Index (Sep 2026). A first-class stamp cost 34¢ in 2001.

Your day, not just your year

2001 was the year. Which day was yours?

Pick your birthday and city. We’ll rebuild that day: the weather outside, the sky overhead, the song on the radio and what a dollar bought.

See your exact day →

The weather, the sky and the #1 song from that exact day, in your city