$100 in 1956 is worth $240 in 1978,
because prices increased 139.7% over that period, an average of
4.05% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$240
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
139.7%
Average inflation rate
4.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$240
Price difference ($100 base)
$140
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1956 → 1978
$240
$100 in 1978 → 1956
$41.72
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1978
Between 1956 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 139.7%, which works out to an average of
4.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1978: the 1956 dollar
lost 58.3% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 2.40: $1,000 becomes
$2,397, and $10,000 becomes $23,971.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.40
$5.00
$11.99
$10.00
$23.97
$20.00
$47.94
$50.00
$120
$100
$240
$500
$1,199
$1,000
$2,397
$5,000
$11,985
$10,000
$23,971
$100,000
$239,706
$1,000,000
$2,397,059
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1978
Between 1956 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 227.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 86.3%, against 139.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.05%
$240
Medical care
5.53%
$327
Food
4.39%
$257
Transportation
3.97%
$235
Apparel
2.87%
$186
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$143
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$240
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $123 by
1967, on its way to $240 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $240; 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 1956 to 1978: $100 is worth $240 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1978/