$100 in 1976 is worth $128 in 1979,
because prices increased 27.6% over that period, an average of
8.46% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$128
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
27.6%
Average inflation rate
8.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$128
Price difference ($100 base)
$27.59
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1976 → 1979
$128
$100 in 1979 → 1976
$78.37
What happened to prices between 1976 and 1979
Between 1976 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 27.6%, which works out to an average of
8.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1979: the 1976 dollar
lost 21.6% of its purchasing power over
these 3 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
Every 1976 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 1.28: $1,000 becomes
$1,276, and $10,000 becomes $12,759.
Amount in 1976
Value in 1979
$1.00
$1.28
$5.00
$6.38
$10.00
$12.76
$20.00
$25.52
$50.00
$63.80
$100
$128
$500
$638
$1,000
$1,276
$5,000
$6,380
$10,000
$12,759
$100,000
$127,592
$1,000,000
$1,275,923
Inflation by spending category, 1976–1979
Between 1976 and 1979, energy rose the most, up 45.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.9%, against 27.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.46%
$128
Energy
13.36%
$146
Housing
9.22%
$130
Medical care
9.09%
$130
Food
9.06%
$130
Transportation
8.56%
$128
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.80%
$125
Apparel
4.13%
$113
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $107 by
1977, on its way to $128 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 6.5% in 1977.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $128; 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 1976 to 1979: $100 is worth $128 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1979/