$100 in 1977 is worth $195 in 1988,
because prices increased 95.2% over that period, an average of
6.27% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$195
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
95.2%
Average inflation rate
6.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$195
Price difference ($100 base)
$95.21
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1977 → 1988
$195
$100 in 1988 → 1977
$51.23
What happened to prices between 1977 and 1988
Between 1977 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 95.2%, which works out to an average of
6.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1988: the 1977 dollar
lost 48.8% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1988 at the same ratio, 1.95: $1,000 becomes
$1,952, and $10,000 becomes $19,521.
Amount in 1977
Value in 1988
$1.00
$1.95
$5.00
$9.76
$10.00
$19.52
$20.00
$39.04
$50.00
$97.61
$100
$195
$500
$976
$1,000
$1,952
$5,000
$9,761
$10,000
$19,521
$100,000
$195,215
$1,000,000
$1,952,145
Inflation by spending category, 1977–1988
Between 1977 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 143.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.8%, against 95.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.27%
$195
Medical care
8.41%
$243
Housing
6.81%
$206
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.61%
$202
Transportation
5.71%
$184
Energy
5.53%
$181
Food
5.51%
$180
Apparel
3.55%
$147
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 1988
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.62% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–1988 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $159 by
1982, on its way to $195 in 1988; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $195; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 1988: $100 is worth $195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-1988/