$100 in 1977 is worth $120 in 1979,
because prices increased 19.8% over that period, an average of
9.45% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$120
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.8%
Average inflation rate
9.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$120
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.80
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1977 → 1979
$120
$100 in 1979 → 1977
$83.47
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1979
Between 1977 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.8%, which works out to an average of
9.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1979: the 1977 dollar
lost 16.5% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
Every 1977 amount converts to 1979 at the same ratio, 1.20: $1,000 becomes
$1,198, and $10,000 becomes $11,980.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1979
$1.00
$1.20
$5.00
$5.99
$10.00
$11.98
$20.00
$23.96
$50.00
$59.90
$100
$120
$500
$599
$1,000
$1,198
$5,000
$5,990
$10,000
$11,980
$100,000
$119,802
$1,000,000
$1,198,020
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1979
Between 1977 and 1979, energy rose the most, up 33.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.0%, against 19.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.45%
$120
Energy
15.32%
$133
Housing
10.51%
$122
Food
10.45%
$122
Transportation
9.31%
$119
Medical care
8.82%
$118
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.57%
$118
Apparel
3.93%
$108
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $108 by
1978, on its way to $120 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 7.6% in 1978.
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $120; 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 1977 to 1979: $100 is worth $120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1979/