$100 in 1979 is worth $316 in 2012,
because prices increased 216.2% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$316
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
216.2%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$316
Price difference ($100 base)
$216
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1979 → 2012
$316
$100 in 2012 → 1979
$31.62
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2012
Between 1979 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 216.2%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.32 buys in 2012: the 1979 dollar
lost 68.4% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 2012 at the same ratio, 3.16: $1,000 becomes
$3,162, and $10,000 becomes $31,625.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2012
$1.00
$3.16
$5.00
$15.81
$10.00
$31.62
$20.00
$63.25
$50.00
$158
$100
$316
$500
$1,581
$1,000
$3,162
$5,000
$15,812
$10,000
$31,625
$100,000
$316,245
$1,000,000
$3,162,452
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2012
Between 1979 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 514.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.7%, against 216.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$316
Medical care
5.66%
$615
Energy
4.08%
$375
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.58%
$320
Housing
3.57%
$318
Transportation
3.47%
$308
Food
3.31%
$293
Apparel
1.21%
$149
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2012
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 1979–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$316
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $210 by
1995, on its way to $316 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $316; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2012: $100 is worth $316 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2012/