$100 in 1979 is worth $156 in 1987,
because prices increased 56.5% over that period, an average of
5.76% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$156
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
56.5%
Average inflation rate
5.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$156
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.47
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1979 → 1987
$156
$100 in 1987 → 1979
$63.91
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1987
Between 1979 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 56.5%, which works out to an average of
5.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1987: the 1979 dollar
lost 36.1% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1987 at the same ratio, 1.56: $1,000 becomes
$1,565, and $10,000 becomes $15,647.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1987
$1.00
$1.56
$5.00
$7.82
$10.00
$15.65
$20.00
$31.29
$50.00
$78.24
$100
$156
$500
$782
$1,000
$1,565
$5,000
$7,824
$10,000
$15,647
$100,000
$156,474
$1,000,000
$1,564,738
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1987
Between 1979 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 92.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.3%, against 56.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.76%
$156
Medical care
8.55%
$193
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.41%
$164
Housing
6.29%
$163
Transportation
5.16%
$150
Food
4.49%
$142
Energy
3.81%
$135
Apparel
3.36%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1987 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1979, at end
1979–1980
13.50%
13.5%
$113
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$156
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $137 by
1983, on its way to $156 in 1987; 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 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $156; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1987: $100 is worth $156 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1987/