$100 in 1979 is worth $113 in 1980,
because prices increased 13.5% over that period, an average of
13.50% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$113
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.5%
Average inflation rate
13.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$113
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.50
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1979 → 1980
$113
$100 in 1980 → 1979
$88.11
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1980
Between 1979 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.5%, which works out to an average of
13.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1980: the 1979 dollar
lost 11.9% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
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.
Every 1979 amount converts to 1980 at the same ratio, 1.13: $1,000 becomes
$1,135, and $10,000 becomes $11,350.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1980
$1.00
$1.13
$5.00
$5.67
$10.00
$11.35
$20.00
$22.70
$50.00
$56.75
$100
$113
$500
$567
$1,000
$1,135
$5,000
$5,675
$10,000
$11,350
$100,000
$113,499
$1,000,000
$1,134,986
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1980
Between 1979 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 30.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.1%, against 13.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
13.50%
$113
Energy
30.90%
$131
Transportation
17.87%
$118
Housing
15.69%
$116
Core (all items less food & energy)
12.38%
$112
Medical care
10.96%
$111
Food
8.64%
$109
Apparel
7.07%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979grew to $113 by 1980; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $113; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1980: $100 is worth $113 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1980/