$100 in 1979 is worth $204 in 1994,
because prices increased 104.1% over that period, an average of
4.87% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$204
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
104.1%
Average inflation rate
4.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$204
Price difference ($100 base)
$104
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1979 → 1994
$204
$100 in 1994 → 1979
$48.99
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1994
Between 1979 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 104.1%, which works out to an average of
4.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1994: the 1979 dollar
lost 51.0% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1994 at the same ratio, 2.04: $1,000 becomes
$2,041, and $10,000 becomes $20,413.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1994
$1.00
$2.04
$5.00
$10.21
$10.00
$20.41
$20.00
$40.83
$50.00
$102
$100
$204
$500
$1,021
$1,000
$2,041
$5,000
$10,207
$10,000
$20,413
$100,000
$204,132
$1,000,000
$2,041,322
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1994
Between 1979 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 212.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.1%, against 104.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.87%
$204
Medical care
7.89%
$313
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.32%
$218
Housing
4.96%
$207
Transportation
4.39%
$190
Food
4.02%
$181
Energy
3.15%
$159
Apparel
3.06%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1994
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.19% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$204
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $151 by
1986, on its way to $204 in 1994; 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 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $204; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1994: $100 is worth $204 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1994/