$100 in 1973 is worth $147 in 1978,
because prices increased 46.8% over that period, an average of
7.99% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$147
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
46.8%
Average inflation rate
7.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$147
Price difference ($100 base)
$46.85
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1973 → 1978
$147
$100 in 1978 → 1973
$68.10
What happened to prices between 1973 and 1978
Between 1973 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 46.8%, which works out to an average of
7.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1978: the 1973 dollar
lost 31.9% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
Every 1973 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 1.47: $1,000 becomes
$1,468, and $10,000 becomes $14,685.
Amount in 1973
Value in 1978
$1.00
$1.47
$5.00
$7.34
$10.00
$14.68
$20.00
$29.37
$50.00
$73.42
$100
$147
$500
$734
$1,000
$1,468
$5,000
$7,342
$10,000
$14,685
$100,000
$146,847
$1,000,000
$1,468,468
Inflation by spending category, 1973–1978
Between 1973 and 1978, energy rose the most, up 78.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 26.0%, against 46.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.99%
$147
Energy
12.30%
$179
Medical care
9.76%
$159
Housing
8.66%
$151
Transportation
8.41%
$150
Food
8.36%
$149
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.51%
$144
Apparel
4.73%
$126
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $121 by
1975, on its way to $147 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 5.8% in 1976.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $147; 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 1973 to 1978: $100 is worth $147 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-1978/