$100 in 1979 is worth $338 in 2017,
because prices increased 237.6% over that period, an average of
3.25% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$338
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
237.6%
Average inflation rate
3.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$338
Price difference ($100 base)
$238
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1979 → 2017
$338
$100 in 2017 → 1979
$29.62
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2017
Between 1979 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 237.6%, which works out to an average of
3.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.30 buys in 2017: the 1979 dollar
lost 70.4% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2017 at the same ratio, 3.38: $1,000 becomes
$3,376, and $10,000 becomes $33,763.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2017
$1.00
$3.38
$5.00
$16.88
$10.00
$33.76
$20.00
$67.53
$50.00
$169
$100
$338
$500
$1,688
$1,000
$3,376
$5,000
$16,882
$10,000
$33,763
$100,000
$337,631
$1,000,000
$3,376,309
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2017
Between 1979 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 604.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.0%, against 237.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.25%
$338
Medical care
5.27%
$704
Housing
3.42%
$358
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.36%
$351
Food
3.05%
$313
Energy
3.03%
$311
Transportation
2.80%
$286
Apparel
1.04%
$148
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2017
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$338
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $221 by
1997, on its way to $338 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $338; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2017: $100 is worth $338 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2017/