$100 in 1979 is worth $229 in 1999,
because prices increased 129.5% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$229
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
129.5%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$229
Price difference ($100 base)
$129
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1979 → 1999
$229
$100 in 1999 → 1979
$43.58
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1999
Between 1979 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 129.5%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1999: the 1979 dollar
lost 56.4% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1999 at the same ratio, 2.29: $1,000 becomes
$2,295, and $10,000 becomes $22,948.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1999
$1.00
$2.29
$5.00
$11.47
$10.00
$22.95
$20.00
$45.90
$50.00
$115
$100
$229
$500
$1,147
$1,000
$2,295
$5,000
$11,474
$10,000
$22,948
$100,000
$229,477
$1,000,000
$2,294,766
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1999
Between 1979 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 271.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 54.7%, against 129.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$229
Medical care
6.78%
$371
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.61%
$246
Housing
4.34%
$234
Food
3.66%
$205
Transportation
3.65%
$205
Energy
2.45%
$162
Apparel
2.20%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$229
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $171 by
1989, on its way to $229 in 1999; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $229; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1999: $100 is worth $229 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1999/