$100 in 1979 is worth $133 in 1982,
because prices increased 32.9% over that period, an average of
9.95% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
32.9%
Average inflation rate
9.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$32.92
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1979 → 1982
$133
$100 in 1982 → 1979
$75.23
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1982
Between 1979 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 32.9%, which works out to an average of
9.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1982: the 1979 dollar
lost 24.8% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1982 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,329, and $10,000 becomes $13,292.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1982
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.65
$10.00
$13.29
$20.00
$26.58
$50.00
$66.46
$100
$133
$500
$665
$1,000
$1,329
$5,000
$6,646
$10,000
$13,292
$100,000
$132,920
$1,000,000
$1,329,201
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1982
Between 1979 and 1982, energy rose the most, up 51.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 15.2%, against 32.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
9.95%
$133
Energy
14.72%
$151
Housing
11.40%
$138
Transportation
11.22%
$138
Medical care
11.07%
$137
Core (all items less food & energy)
10.04%
$133
Food
6.82%
$122
Apparel
4.83%
$115
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (8.22% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1982 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1979, at end
1979–1980
13.50%
13.5%
$113
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$133
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $113 by
1980, on its way to $133 in 1982; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 6.2% in 1982.
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $133; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1982: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1982/