$100 in 1979 is worth $346 in 2018,
because prices increased 245.9% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$346
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
245.9%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$346
Price difference ($100 base)
$246
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1979 → 2018
$346
$100 in 2018 → 1979
$28.91
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2018
Between 1979 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 245.9%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.29 buys in 2018: the 1979 dollar
lost 71.1% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 2018 at the same ratio, 3.46: $1,000 becomes
$3,459, and $10,000 becomes $34,588.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2018
$1.00
$3.46
$5.00
$17.29
$10.00
$34.59
$20.00
$69.18
$50.00
$173
$100
$346
$500
$1,729
$1,000
$3,459
$5,000
$17,294
$10,000
$34,588
$100,000
$345,877
$1,000,000
$3,458,774
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2018
Between 1979 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 618.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.0%, against 245.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$346
Medical care
5.18%
$718
Housing
3.40%
$369
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.33%
$358
Energy
3.15%
$335
Food
3.01%
$317
Transportation
2.85%
$299
Apparel
1.01%
$148
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$346
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $229 by
1999, on its way to $346 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $346; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2018: $100 is worth $346 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2018/