$100 in 1979 is worth $216 in 1996,
because prices increased 116.1% over that period, an average of
4.64% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$216
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
116.1%
Average inflation rate
4.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$216
Price difference ($100 base)
$116
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1979 → 1996
$216
$100 in 1996 → 1979
$46.27
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1996
Between 1979 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 116.1%, which works out to an average of
4.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1996: the 1979 dollar
lost 53.7% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1996 at the same ratio, 2.16: $1,000 becomes
$2,161, and $10,000 becomes $21,612.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1996
$1.00
$2.16
$5.00
$10.81
$10.00
$21.61
$20.00
$43.22
$50.00
$108
$100
$216
$500
$1,081
$1,000
$2,161
$5,000
$10,806
$10,000
$21,612
$100,000
$216,116
$1,000,000
$2,161,157
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1996
Between 1979 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 238.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 55.1%, against 116.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.64%
$216
Medical care
7.43%
$338
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.03%
$230
Housing
4.69%
$218
Transportation
4.25%
$203
Food
3.91%
$192
Energy
3.08%
$168
Apparel
2.62%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$216
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $156 by
1987, on its way to $216 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $216; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1996: $100 is worth $216 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1996/