$100 in 1979 is worth $221 in 1997,
because prices increased 121.1% over that period, an average of
4.51% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$221
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
121.1%
Average inflation rate
4.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$221
Price difference ($100 base)
$121
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1979 → 1997
$221
$100 in 1997 → 1979
$45.23
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1997
Between 1979 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 121.1%, which works out to an average of
4.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1997: the 1979 dollar
lost 54.8% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1997 at the same ratio, 2.21: $1,000 becomes
$2,211, and $10,000 becomes $22,107.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1997
$1.00
$2.21
$5.00
$11.05
$10.00
$22.11
$20.00
$44.21
$50.00
$111
$100
$221
$500
$1,105
$1,000
$2,211
$5,000
$11,054
$10,000
$22,107
$100,000
$221,074
$1,000,000
$2,210,744
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1997
Between 1979 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 247.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.5%, against 121.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.51%
$221
Medical care
7.17%
$348
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.88%
$236
Housing
4.57%
$224
Transportation
4.06%
$205
Food
3.83%
$197
Energy
2.98%
$170
Apparel
2.52%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$221
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $163 by
1988, on its way to $221 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $221; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1997: $100 is worth $221 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1997/