$100 in 1979 is worth $253 in 2003,
because prices increased 153.4% over that period, an average of
3.95% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$253
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
153.4%
Average inflation rate
3.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$253
Price difference ($100 base)
$153
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1979 → 2003
$253
$100 in 2003 → 1979
$39.46
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2003
Between 1979 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 153.4%, which works out to an average of
3.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.39 buys in 2003: the 1979 dollar
lost 60.5% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2003 at the same ratio, 2.53: $1,000 becomes
$2,534, and $10,000 becomes $25,344.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2003
$1.00
$2.53
$5.00
$12.67
$10.00
$25.34
$20.00
$50.69
$50.00
$127
$100
$253
$500
$1,267
$1,000
$2,534
$5,000
$12,672
$10,000
$25,344
$100,000
$253,444
$1,000,000
$2,534,435
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2003
Between 1979 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 340.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 42.4%, against 153.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.95%
$253
Medical care
6.37%
$440
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.20%
$269
Housing
4.12%
$264
Food
3.44%
$225
Transportation
3.41%
$224
Energy
3.09%
$208
Apparel
1.48%
$142
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$237
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$253
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $188 by
1991, on its way to $253 in 2003; 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 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $253; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2003: $100 is worth $253 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2003/