$100 in 1977 is worth $108 in 1978,
because prices increased 7.6% over that period, an average of
7.59% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.6%
Average inflation rate
7.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.59
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1977 → 1978
$108
$100 in 1978 → 1977
$92.94
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1978
Between 1977 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.6%, which works out to an average of
7.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1978: the 1977 dollar
lost 7.1% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
Every 1977 amount converts to 1978 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,076, and $10,000 becomes $10,759.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1978
$1.00
$1.08
$5.00
$5.38
$10.00
$10.76
$20.00
$21.52
$50.00
$53.80
$100
$108
$500
$538
$1,000
$1,076
$5,000
$5,380
$10,000
$10,759
$100,000
$107,591
$1,000,000
$1,075,908
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1978
Between 1977 and 1978, food rose the most, up 9.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.6%, against 7.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.59%
$108
Food
9.92%
$110
Housing
8.71%
$109
Medical care
8.42%
$108
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.38%
$107
Energy
6.28%
$106
Transportation
4.58%
$105
Apparel
3.56%
$104
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977grew to $108 by 1978; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $108; 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 1977 to 1978: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1978/