$100 in 1977 is worth $414 in 2018,
because prices increased 314.4% over that period, an average of
3.53% a year.
$100 in 1977 has
the same buying power as
$414
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
314.4%
Average inflation rate
3.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$414
Price difference ($100 base)
$314
CPI in 1977
60.6
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1977 → 2018
$414
$100 in 2018 → 1977
$24.13
What happened to prices between 1977 and 2018
Between 1977 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 60.6 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 314.4%, which works out to an average of
3.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1977 bought what
$0.24 buys in 2018: the 1977 dollar
lost 75.9% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 2018 at the same ratio, 4.14: $1,000 becomes
$4,144, and $10,000 becomes $41,437.
Amount in 1977
Value in 2018
$1.00
$4.14
$5.00
$20.72
$10.00
$41.44
$20.00
$82.87
$50.00
$207
$100
$414
$500
$2,072
$1,000
$4,144
$5,000
$20,718
$10,000
$41,437
$100,000
$414,368
$1,000,000
$4,143,680
Inflation by spending category, 1977–2018
Between 1977 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 750.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 59.9%, against 314.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1977
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1977 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.53%
$414
Medical care
5.36%
$850
Housing
3.74%
$450
Energy
3.71%
$445
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.58%
$422
Food
3.36%
$387
Transportation
3.15%
$357
Apparel
1.15%
$160
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1977: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1977 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 10.79% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1977–2018 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1977, at end
1977–1980
10.79%
36.0%
$136
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$216
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$284
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$360
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$414
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1977
$100 from 1977 had already become $265 by
1997, on its way to $414 in 2018; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1977 had the buying
power of $414; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1977 to 2018: $100 is worth $414 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1977 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1977-to-2018/