$100 in 1950 is worth $271 in 1978,
because prices increased 170.5% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1950 has
the same buying power as
$271
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
170.5%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$271
Price difference ($100 base)
$171
CPI in 1950
24.1
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1950 → 1978
$271
$100 in 1978 → 1950
$36.96
What happened to prices between 1950 and 1978
Between 1950 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 170.5%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1950 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1978: the 1950 dollar
lost 63.0% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
Every 1950 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 2.71: $1,000 becomes
$2,705, and $10,000 becomes $27,054.
Amount in 1950
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.71
$5.00
$13.53
$10.00
$27.05
$20.00
$54.11
$50.00
$135
$100
$271
$500
$1,353
$1,000
$2,705
$5,000
$13,527
$10,000
$27,054
$100,000
$270,539
$1,000,000
$2,705,394
Inflation by spending category, 1950–1978
Between 1950 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 309.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 102.0%, against 170.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1950
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1950 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$271
Medical care
5.16%
$409
Food
3.79%
$283
Transportation
3.64%
$272
Apparel
2.54%
$202
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1950: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1950 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1950–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1950, at end
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$271
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1950
$100 from 1950 had already become $129 by
1964, on its way to $271 in 1978; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1950 had the buying
power of $271; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1950 to 1978: $100 is worth $271 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1950 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1950-to-1978/