$100 in 1979 is worth $260 in 2004,
because prices increased 160.2% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$260
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
160.2%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$260
Price difference ($100 base)
$160
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1979 → 2004
$260
$100 in 2004 → 1979
$38.43
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2004
Between 1979 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 160.2%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.38 buys in 2004: the 1979 dollar
lost 61.6% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 2004 at the same ratio, 2.60: $1,000 becomes
$2,602, and $10,000 becomes $26,019.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2004
$1.00
$2.60
$5.00
$13.01
$10.00
$26.02
$20.00
$52.04
$50.00
$130
$100
$260
$500
$1,301
$1,000
$2,602
$5,000
$13,010
$10,000
$26,019
$100,000
$260,193
$1,000,000
$2,601,928
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2004
Between 1979 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 359.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 41.8%, against 160.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$260
Medical care
6.29%
$459
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.11%
$273
Housing
4.06%
$270
Food
3.44%
$233
Transportation
3.41%
$231
Energy
3.40%
$230
Apparel
1.41%
$142
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2004
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.34% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$260
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $188 by
1991, on its way to $260 in 2004; 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 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $260; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2004: $100 is worth $260 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2004/