$100 in 1979 is worth $188 in 1991,
because prices increased 87.6% over that period, an average of
5.38% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$188
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.6%
Average inflation rate
5.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$188
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.60
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1979 → 1991
$188
$100 in 1991 → 1979
$53.30
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1991
Between 1979 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.6%, which works out to an average of
5.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.53 buys in 1991: the 1979 dollar
lost 46.7% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1991 at the same ratio, 1.88: $1,000 becomes
$1,876, and $10,000 becomes $18,760.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1991
$1.00
$1.88
$5.00
$9.38
$10.00
$18.76
$20.00
$37.52
$50.00
$93.80
$100
$188
$500
$938
$1,000
$1,876
$5,000
$9,380
$10,000
$18,760
$100,000
$187,603
$1,000,000
$1,876,033
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1991
Between 1979 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 162.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 51.6%, against 87.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.38%
$188
Medical care
8.37%
$262
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.84%
$198
Housing
5.52%
$191
Transportation
4.80%
$176
Food
4.55%
$171
Energy
3.78%
$156
Apparel
3.53%
$152
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1979, at end
1979–1980
13.50%
13.5%
$113
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$180
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$188
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $148 by
1985, on its way to $188 in 1991; 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 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $188; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1991: $100 is worth $188 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1991/