$100 in 1979 is worth $286 in 2007,
because prices increased 185.6% over that period, an average of
3.82% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$286
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
185.6%
Average inflation rate
3.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$286
Price difference ($100 base)
$186
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1979 → 2007
$286
$100 in 2007 → 1979
$35.01
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2007
Between 1979 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 185.6%, which works out to an average of
3.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.35 buys in 2007: the 1979 dollar
lost 65.0% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 2007 at the same ratio, 2.86: $1,000 becomes
$2,856, and $10,000 becomes $28,560.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2007
$1.00
$2.86
$5.00
$14.28
$10.00
$28.56
$20.00
$57.12
$50.00
$143
$100
$286
$500
$1,428
$1,000
$2,856
$5,000
$14,280
$10,000
$28,560
$100,000
$285,595
$1,000,000
$2,855,950
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2007
Between 1979 and 2007, medical care rose the most, up 420.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 40.2%, against 185.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.82%
$286
Medical care
6.07%
$520
Energy
4.20%
$316
Housing
3.99%
$299
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.92%
$293
Transportation
3.50%
$262
Food
3.38%
$254
Apparel
1.21%
$140
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2007
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$286
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $199 by
1993, on its way to $286 in 2007; 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 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $286; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2007: $100 is worth $286 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2007/