$100 in 1979 is worth $137 in 1983,
because prices increased 37.2% over that period, an average of
8.23% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.2%
Average inflation rate
8.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.19
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1979 → 1983
$137
$100 in 1983 → 1979
$72.89
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1983
Between 1979 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.2%, which works out to an average of
8.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1983: the 1979 dollar
lost 27.1% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1983 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,372, and $10,000 becomes $13,719.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1983
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.86
$10.00
$13.72
$20.00
$27.44
$50.00
$68.60
$100
$137
$500
$686
$1,000
$1,372
$5,000
$6,860
$10,000
$13,719
$100,000
$137,190
$1,000,000
$1,371,901
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1983
Between 1979 and 1983, energy rose the most, up 52.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 18.0%, against 37.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.23%
$137
Energy
11.05%
$152
Medical care
10.49%
$149
Housing
9.15%
$142
Transportation
8.94%
$141
Core (all items less food & energy)
8.49%
$139
Food
5.61%
$124
Apparel
4.23%
$118
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (6.52% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1983 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1979, at end
1979–1980
13.50%
13.5%
$113
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $125 by
1981, on its way to $137 in 1983; 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 3.2% in 1983.
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $137; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1983: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1983/