$100 in 1951 is worth $279 in 1979,
because prices increased 179.2% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$279
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
179.2%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$279
Price difference ($100 base)
$179
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1951 → 1979
$279
$100 in 1979 → 1951
$35.81
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1979
Between 1951 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 179.2%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1979: the 1951 dollar
lost 64.2% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 2.79: $1,000 becomes
$2,792, and $10,000 becomes $27,923.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.79
$5.00
$13.96
$10.00
$27.92
$20.00
$55.85
$50.00
$140
$100
$279
$500
$1,396
$1,000
$2,792
$5,000
$13,962
$10,000
$27,923
$100,000
$279,231
$1,000,000
$2,792,308
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1979
Between 1951 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 324.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 93.4%, against 179.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$279
Medical care
5.30%
$425
Transportation
3.91%
$293
Food
3.79%
$283
Apparel
2.38%
$193
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$279
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $121 by
1965, on its way to $279 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 1951 had the buying
power of $279; 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 1951 to 1979: $100 is worth $279 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1979/