$100 in 1979 is worth $432 in 2024,
because prices increased 332.1% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$432
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
332.1%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$432
Price difference ($100 base)
$332
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1979 → 2024
$432
$100 in 2024 → 1979
$23.14
What happened to prices between 1979 and 2024
Between 1979 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 332.1%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.23 buys in 2024: the 1979 dollar
lost 76.9% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 2024 at the same ratio, 4.32: $1,000 becomes
$4,321, and $10,000 becomes $43,208.
Amount in 1979
Value in 2024
$1.00
$4.32
$5.00
$21.60
$10.00
$43.21
$20.00
$86.42
$50.00
$216
$100
$432
$500
$2,160
$1,000
$4,321
$5,000
$21,604
$10,000
$43,208
$100,000
$432,079
$1,000,000
$4,320,785
Inflation by spending category, 1979–2024
Between 1979 and 2024, medical care rose the most, up 735.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 54.9%, against 332.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$432
Medical care
4.83%
$835
Housing
3.53%
$477
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.37%
$444
Energy
3.27%
$425
Food
3.20%
$413
Transportation
3.03%
$384
Apparel
0.98%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 2024
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–2024 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$356
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$432
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $244 by
2001, on its way to $432 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $432; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 2024: $100 is worth $432 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-2024/