$100 in 1954 is worth $270 in 1979,
because prices increased 169.9% over that period, an average of
4.05% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$270
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
169.9%
Average inflation rate
4.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$270
Price difference ($100 base)
$170
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1954 → 1979
$270
$100 in 1979 → 1954
$37.05
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1979
Between 1954 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 169.9%, which works out to an average of
4.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1979: the 1954 dollar
lost 62.9% of its purchasing power over
these 25 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 2.70: $1,000 becomes
$2,699, and $10,000 becomes $26,989.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.70
$5.00
$13.49
$10.00
$26.99
$20.00
$53.98
$50.00
$135
$100
$270
$500
$1,349
$1,000
$2,699
$5,000
$13,494
$10,000
$26,989
$100,000
$269,888
$1,000,000
$2,698,885
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1979
Between 1954 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 279.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 97.0%, against 169.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.05%
$270
Medical care
5.48%
$379
Food
4.25%
$283
Transportation
4.05%
$270
Apparel
2.75%
$197
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$144
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$270
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $120 by
1966, on its way to $270 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 1954 had the buying
power of $270; 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 1954 to 1979: $100 is worth $270 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1979/