$100 in 1979 is worth $326 in 2015,
because prices increased 226.5% over that period, an average of
3.34% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$326
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
226.5%
Average inflation rate
3.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$326
Price difference ($100 base)
$226
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1979 → 2015
$326
$100 in 2015 → 1979
$30.63
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2015
Between 1979 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 226.5%, which works out to an average of
3.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.31 buys in 2015: the 1979 dollar
lost 69.4% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 2015 at the same ratio, 3.26: $1,000 becomes
$3,265, and $10,000 becomes $32,647.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2015
$1.00
$3.26
$5.00
$16.32
$10.00
$32.65
$20.00
$65.29
$50.00
$163
$100
$326
$500
$1,632
$1,000
$3,265
$5,000
$16,323
$10,000
$32,647
$100,000
$326,470
$1,000,000
$3,264,697
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2015
Between 1979 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 561.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.3%, against 226.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.34%
$326
Medical care
5.39%
$662
Housing
3.45%
$340
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.43%
$337
Food
3.19%
$309
Energy
3.18%
$309
Transportation
2.93%
$282
Apparel
1.10%
$148
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$326
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $221 by
1997, on its way to $326 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $326; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2015: $100 is worth $326 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2015/