$100 in 1958 is worth $226 in 1978,
because prices increased 125.6% over that period, an average of
4.15% a year.
$100 in 1958 has
the same buying power as
$226
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
125.6%
Average inflation rate
4.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$226
Price difference ($100 base)
$126
CPI in 1958
28.9
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1958 → 1978
$226
$100 in 1978 → 1958
$44.33
What happened to prices between 1958 and 1978
Between 1958 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.9 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 125.6%, which works out to an average of
4.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1958 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1978: the 1958 dollar
lost 55.7% of its purchasing power over
these 20 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
Every 1958 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 2.26: $1,000 becomes
$2,256, and $10,000 becomes $22,561.
Amount in 1958
Value in 1978
$1.00
$2.26
$5.00
$11.28
$10.00
$22.56
$20.00
$45.12
$50.00
$113
$100
$226
$500
$1,128
$1,000
$2,256
$5,000
$11,280
$10,000
$22,561
$100,000
$225,606
$1,000,000
$2,256,055
Inflation by spending category, 1958–1978
Between 1958 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 200.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 82.5%, against 125.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1958
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1958 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.15%
$226
Medical care
5.65%
$300
Energy
4.56%
$244
Food
4.44%
$238
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.05%
$221
Transportation
3.92%
$216
Apparel
3.05%
$183
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1958: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1958 to 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.20% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1958–1978 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1958, at end
1958–1960
1.20%
2.4%
$102
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$134
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$226
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1958
$100 from 1958 had already become $120 by
1968, on its way to $226 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 1958 had the buying
power of $226; 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 1958 to 1978: $100 is worth $226 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1958 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1958-to-1978/