$100 in 1978 is worth $126 in 1980,
because prices increased 26.4% over that period, an average of
12.42% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$126
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.4%
Average inflation rate
12.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$126
Price difference ($100 base)
$26.38
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1978 → 1980
$126
$100 in 1980 → 1978
$79.13
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1980
Between 1978 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.4%, which works out to an average of
12.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1980: the 1978 dollar
lost 20.9% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
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.
Every 1978 amount converts to 1980 at the same ratio, 1.26: $1,000 becomes
$1,264, and $10,000 becomes $12,638.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1980
$1.00
$1.26
$5.00
$6.32
$10.00
$12.64
$20.00
$25.28
$50.00
$63.19
$100
$126
$500
$632
$1,000
$1,264
$5,000
$6,319
$10,000
$12,638
$100,000
$126,380
$1,000,000
$1,263,804
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1980
Between 1978 and 1980, energy rose the most, up 63.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.7%, against 26.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
12.42%
$126
Energy
27.99%
$164
Transportation
16.05%
$135
Housing
14.00%
$130
Core (all items less food & energy)
11.07%
$123
Medical care
10.09%
$121
Food
9.80%
$121
Apparel
5.67%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $111 by
1979, on its way to $126 in 1980; 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 11.3% in 1979.
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $126; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1980: $100 is worth $126 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1980/