$100 in 1922 is worth $432 in 1979,
because prices increased 332.1% over that period, an average of
2.60% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$432
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
332.1%
Average inflation rate
2.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$432
Price difference ($100 base)
$332
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1922 → 1979
$432
$100 in 1979 → 1922
$23.14
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1979
Between 1922 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 332.1%, which works out to an average of
2.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1979: the 1922 dollar
lost 76.9% of its purchasing power over
these 57 years.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
Every 1922 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 4.32: $1,000 becomes
$4,321, and $10,000 becomes $43,214.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1979
$1.00
$4.32
$5.00
$21.61
$10.00
$43.21
$20.00
$86.43
$50.00
$216
$100
$432
$500
$2,161
$1,000
$4,321
$5,000
$21,607
$10,000
$43,214
$100,000
$432,143
$1,000,000
$4,321,429
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1979
Between 1922 and 1979, food rose the most, up 436.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 214.4%, against 332.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.60%
$432
Food
2.99%
$536
Apparel
2.03%
$314
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1922: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1922 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.33
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$143
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$176
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$231
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$432
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $143 by
1950, on its way to $432 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $432; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1979: $100 is worth $432 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1979/