Earlier today I posted a chart series for the December retail sales. At the suggestion of guest contributor Bob Bronson, I now feature a chart that adjusts the data for population growth and inflation.

Consider: During the past 21 years, the US population has grown by over 22% while the dollar has lost about 37% of its purchasing power to inflation. When we adjust accordingly, the rebound in retail sales from the bottom in April 2009 merely gets us back to the per capita spending during the late summer of 1999.

Note: For the mathematically inclined, I've included a linear regression and a best-fit polynomial regression.