$100 in 1951 is worth $251 in 1978,
because prices increased 150.8% over that period, an average of
3.46% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$251
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
150.8%
Average inflation rate
3.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$251
Price difference ($100 base)
$151
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1951 → 1978
$251
$100 in 1978 → 1951
$39.88
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1978
Between 1951 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 150.8%, which works out to an average of
3.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1978: the 1951 dollar
lost 60.1% of its purchasing power over
these 27 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 2.51: $1,000 becomes
$2,508, and $10,000 becomes $25,077.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.51
$5.00
$12.54
$10.00
$25.08
$20.00
$50.15
$50.00
$125
$100
$251
$500
$1,254
$1,000
$2,508
$5,000
$12,538
$10,000
$25,077
$100,000
$250,769
$1,000,000
$2,507,692
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1978
Between 1951 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 288.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 85.4%, against 150.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.46%
$251
Medical care
5.16%
$389
Transportation
3.54%
$256
Food
3.53%
$255
Apparel
2.31%
$185
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$251
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $119 by
1964, on its way to $251 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 1951 had the buying
power of $251; 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 1951 to 1978: $100 is worth $251 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1978/