$100 in 1974 is worth $132 in 1978,
because prices increased 32.3% over that period, an average of
7.24% a year.
$100 in 1974 has
the same buying power as
$132
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
32.3%
Average inflation rate
7.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$132
Price difference ($100 base)
$32.25
CPI in 1974
49.3
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1974 → 1978
$132
$100 in 1978 → 1974
$75.61
What happened to prices between 1974 and 1978
Between 1974 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 49.3 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 32.3%, which works out to an average of
7.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1974 bought what
$0.76 buys in 1978: the 1974 dollar
lost 24.4% of its purchasing power over
these 4 years.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
Every 1974 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 1.32: $1,000 becomes
$1,323, and $10,000 becomes $13,225.
Amount in 1974
Value in 1978
$1.00
$1.32
$5.00
$6.61
$10.00
$13.23
$20.00
$26.45
$50.00
$66.13
$100
$132
$500
$661
$1,000
$1,323
$5,000
$6,613
$10,000
$13,225
$100,000
$132,252
$1,000,000
$1,322,515
Inflation by spending category, 1974–1978
Between 1974 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 45.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 17.3%, against 32.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1974
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1974 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.24%
$132
Medical care
9.88%
$146
Energy
8.34%
$138
Housing
8.04%
$136
Transportation
7.73%
$135
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.31%
$133
Food
6.92%
$131
Apparel
4.07%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1974: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1974
$100 from 1974 had already become $115 by
1976, on its way to $132 in 1978; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 9.1% in 1975, and the smallest rise was 5.8% in 1976.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1974 had the buying
power of $132; 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 1974 to 1978: $100 is worth $132 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1974 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1974-to-1978/