$100 in 1934 is worth $542 in 1979,
because prices increased 441.8% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$542
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
441.8%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$542
Price difference ($100 base)
$442
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1934 → 1979
$542
$100 in 1979 → 1934
$18.46
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1979
Between 1934 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 441.8%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1979: the 1934 dollar
lost 81.5% of its purchasing power over
these 45 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 5.42: $1,000 becomes
$5,418, and $10,000 becomes $54,179.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.42
$5.00
$27.09
$10.00
$54.18
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$271
$100
$542
$500
$2,709
$1,000
$5,418
$5,000
$27,090
$10,000
$54,179
$100,000
$541,791
$1,000,000
$5,417,910
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1979
Between 1934 and 1979, food rose the most, up 588.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 312.1%, against 441.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$542
Food
4.38%
$689
Apparel
3.20%
$412
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$290
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$542
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $203 by
1956, on its way to $542 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1934 had the buying
power of $542; 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 1934 to 1979: $100 is worth $542 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1979/