$100 in 1950 is worth $301 in 1979,
because prices increased 201.2% over that period, an average of
3.88% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$301
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
201.2%
Average inflation rate
3.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$301
Price difference ($100 base)
$201
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1950 → 1979
$301
$100 in 1979 → 1950
$33.20
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1979
Between 1950 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 201.2%, which works out to an average of
3.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1979: the 1950 dollar
lost 66.8% of its purchasing power over
these 29 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 3.01: $1,000 becomes
$3,012, and $10,000 becomes $30,124.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1979
$1.00
$3.01
$5.00
$15.06
$10.00
$30.12
$20.00
$60.25
$50.00
$151
$100
$301
$500
$1,506
$1,000
$3,012
$5,000
$15,062
$10,000
$30,124
$100,000
$301,245
$1,000,000
$3,012,448
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1979
Between 1950 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 347.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 110.7%, against 201.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.88%
$301
Medical care
5.30%
$447
Food
4.03%
$315
Transportation
3.99%
$311
Apparel
2.60%
$211
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1950 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$301
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $129 by
1964, on its way to $301 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $301; 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 1950 to 1979: $100 is worth $301 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1979/