$100 in 1978 is worth $139 in 1981,
because prices increased 39.4% over that period, an average of
11.71% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.4%
Average inflation rate
11.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.42
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1978 → 1981
$139
$100 in 1981 → 1978
$71.73
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1981
Between 1978 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.4%, which works out to an average of
11.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1981: the 1978 dollar
lost 28.3% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1981 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,394, and $10,000 becomes $13,942.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1981
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.97
$10.00
$13.94
$20.00
$27.88
$50.00
$69.71
$100
$139
$500
$697
$1,000
$1,394
$5,000
$6,971
$10,000
$13,942
$100,000
$139,417
$1,000,000
$1,394,172
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1981
Between 1978 and 1981, energy rose the most, up 86.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 17.1%, against 39.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
11.71%
$139
Energy
23.00%
$186
Transportation
14.74%
$151
Housing
13.15%
$145
Core (all items less food & energy)
10.84%
$136
Medical care
10.29%
$134
Food
9.14%
$130
Apparel
5.40%
$117
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (10.32% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1978, at end
1978–1980
12.42%
26.4%
$126
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $111 by
1979, on its way to $139 in 1981; 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 10.3% in 1981.
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1981: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1981/