$100 in 1979 is worth $210 in 1995,
because prices increased 109.9% over that period, an average of
4.74% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$210
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
109.9%
Average inflation rate
4.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$210
Price difference ($100 base)
$110
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1979 → 1995
$210
$100 in 1995 → 1979
$47.64
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1995
Between 1979 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 109.9%, which works out to an average of
4.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1995: the 1979 dollar
lost 52.4% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1995 at the same ratio, 2.10: $1,000 becomes
$2,099, and $10,000 becomes $20,992.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1995
$1.00
$2.10
$5.00
$10.50
$10.00
$20.99
$20.00
$41.98
$50.00
$105
$100
$210
$500
$1,050
$1,000
$2,099
$5,000
$10,496
$10,000
$20,992
$100,000
$209,917
$1,000,000
$2,099,174
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1995
Between 1979 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 226.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 55.5%, against 109.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.74%
$210
Medical care
7.68%
$327
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.18%
$224
Housing
4.80%
$212
Transportation
4.34%
$197
Food
3.95%
$186
Energy
2.99%
$160
Apparel
2.80%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$210
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $156 by
1987, on its way to $210 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $210; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1995: $100 is worth $210 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1995/