$100 in 1979 is worth $352 in 2019,
because prices increased 252.1% over that period, an average of
3.20% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$352
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
252.1%
Average inflation rate
3.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$352
Price difference ($100 base)
$252
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1979 → 2019
$352
$100 in 2019 → 1979
$28.40
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2019
Between 1979 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 252.1%, which works out to an average of
3.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.28 buys in 2019: the 1979 dollar
lost 71.6% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 2019 at the same ratio, 3.52: $1,000 becomes
$3,521, and $10,000 becomes $35,214.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2019
$1.00
$3.52
$5.00
$17.61
$10.00
$35.21
$20.00
$70.43
$50.00
$176
$100
$352
$500
$1,761
$1,000
$3,521
$5,000
$17,607
$10,000
$35,214
$100,000
$352,145
$1,000,000
$3,521,446
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2019
Between 1979 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 638.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.1%, against 252.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.20%
$352
Medical care
5.13%
$738
Housing
3.39%
$379
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.30%
$366
Energy
3.01%
$328
Food
2.98%
$323
Transportation
2.77%
$298
Apparel
0.95%
$146
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2019
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 1979–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$352
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $229 by
1999, on its way to $352 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $352; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2019: $100 is worth $352 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2019/