$100 in 1979 is worth $151 in 1986,
because prices increased 51.0% over that period, an average of
6.06% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$151
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
51.0%
Average inflation rate
6.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$151
Price difference ($100 base)
$50.96
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1979 → 1986
$151
$100 in 1986 → 1979
$66.24
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1986
Between 1979 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 51.0%, which works out to an average of
6.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1986: the 1979 dollar
lost 33.8% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1986 at the same ratio, 1.51: $1,000 becomes
$1,510, and $10,000 becomes $15,096.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1986
$1.00
$1.51
$5.00
$7.55
$10.00
$15.10
$20.00
$30.19
$50.00
$75.48
$100
$151
$500
$755
$1,000
$1,510
$5,000
$7,548
$10,000
$15,096
$100,000
$150,964
$1,000,000
$1,509,642
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1986
Between 1979 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 80.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 24.7%, against 51.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.06%
$151
Medical care
8.82%
$181
Housing
6.77%
$158
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.74%
$158
Transportation
5.46%
$145
Food
4.54%
$136
Energy
4.30%
$134
Apparel
3.21%
$125
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1979, at end
1979–1980
13.50%
13.5%
$113
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$151
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $133 by
1982, on its way to $151 in 1986; 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 1.9% in 1986.
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $151; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1986: $100 is worth $151 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1986/