$100 in 1956 is worth $267 in 1979,
because prices increased 166.9% over that period, an average of
4.36% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$267
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
166.9%
Average inflation rate
4.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$267
Price difference ($100 base)
$167
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1956 → 1979
$267
$100 in 1979 → 1956
$37.47
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1979
Between 1956 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 166.9%, which works out to an average of
4.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1979: the 1956 dollar
lost 62.5% of its purchasing power over
these 23 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 2.67: $1,000 becomes
$2,669, and $10,000 becomes $26,691.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1979
$1.00
$2.67
$5.00
$13.35
$10.00
$26.69
$20.00
$53.38
$50.00
$133
$100
$267
$500
$1,335
$1,000
$2,669
$5,000
$13,346
$10,000
$26,691
$100,000
$266,912
$1,000,000
$2,669,118
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1979
Between 1956 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 257.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 94.3%, against 166.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.36%
$267
Medical care
5.69%
$357
Food
4.66%
$285
Transportation
4.40%
$269
Apparel
2.93%
$194
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1979 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$143
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$267
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $123 by
1967, on its way to $267 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $267; 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 1956 to 1979: $100 is worth $267 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1979/