$100 in 1979 is worth $300 in 2010,
because prices increased 200.4% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$300
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
200.4%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$300
Price difference ($100 base)
$200
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1979 → 2010
$300
$100 in 2010 → 1979
$33.29
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2010
Between 1979 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 200.4%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.33 buys in 2010: the 1979 dollar
lost 66.7% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 2010 at the same ratio, 3.00: $1,000 becomes
$3,004, and $10,000 becomes $30,035.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2010
$1.00
$3.00
$5.00
$15.02
$10.00
$30.04
$20.00
$60.07
$50.00
$150
$100
$300
$500
$1,502
$1,000
$3,004
$5,000
$15,018
$10,000
$30,035
$100,000
$300,353
$1,000,000
$3,003,526
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2010
Between 1979 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 475.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 40.8%, against 200.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$300
Medical care
5.81%
$575
Energy
3.84%
$322
Housing
3.70%
$308
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.69%
$308
Food
3.32%
$275
Transportation
3.31%
$274
Apparel
1.11%
$141
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2010
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$300
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $210 by
1995, on its way to $300 in 2010; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $300; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2010: $100 is worth $300 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2010/