$100 in 1976 is worth $115 in 1978,
because prices increased 14.6% over that period, an average of
7.05% a year.
$100 in 1976 has
the same buying power as
$115
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
14.6%
Average inflation rate
7.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$115
Price difference ($100 base)
$14.59
CPI in 1976
56.9
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1976 → 1978
$115
$100 in 1978 → 1976
$87.27
What happened to prices between 1976 and 1978
Between 1976 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 56.9 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 14.6%, which works out to an average of
7.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1976 bought what
$0.87 buys in 1978: the 1976 dollar
lost 12.7% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
Every 1976 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 1.15: $1,000 becomes
$1,146, and $10,000 becomes $11,459.
Amount in 1976
Value in 1978
$1.00
$1.15
$5.00
$5.73
$10.00
$11.46
$20.00
$22.92
$50.00
$57.29
$100
$115
$500
$573
$1,000
$1,146
$5,000
$5,729
$10,000
$11,459
$100,000
$114,587
$1,000,000
$1,145,870
Inflation by spending category, 1976–1978
Between 1976 and 1978, medical care rose the most, up 18.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.2%, against 14.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1976
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1976 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.05%
$115
Medical care
9.02%
$119
Food
8.11%
$117
Energy
7.89%
$116
Housing
7.70%
$116
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.82%
$114
Transportation
5.82%
$112
Apparel
4.04%
$108
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1976: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1976
$100 from 1976 had already become $107 by
1977, on its way to $115 in 1978; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.6% in 1978, and the smallest rise was 6.5% in 1977.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1976 had the buying
power of $115; 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 1976 to 1978: $100 is worth $115 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1976 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1976-to-1978/