$100 in 1978 is worth $168 in 1986,
because prices increased 68.1% over that period, an average of
6.71% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$168
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
68.1%
Average inflation rate
6.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$168
Price difference ($100 base)
$68.10
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1978 → 1986
$168
$100 in 1986 → 1978
$59.49
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1986
Between 1978 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 68.1%, which works out to an average of
6.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1986: the 1978 dollar
lost 40.5% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1986 at the same ratio, 1.68: $1,000 becomes
$1,681, and $10,000 becomes $16,810.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1986
$1.00
$1.68
$5.00
$8.40
$10.00
$16.81
$20.00
$33.62
$50.00
$84.05
$100
$168
$500
$840
$1,000
$1,681
$5,000
$8,405
$10,000
$16,810
$100,000
$168,098
$1,000,000
$1,680,982
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1986
Between 1978 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 97.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 30.1%, against 68.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.71%
$168
Medical care
8.87%
$197
Housing
7.45%
$178
Core (all items less food & energy)
7.11%
$173
Energy
6.70%
$168
Transportation
6.52%
$166
Food
5.32%
$151
Apparel
3.34%
$130
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.87% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1986 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1978, at end
1978–1980
12.42%
26.4%
$126
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$168
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $148 by
1982, on its way to $168 in 1986; 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 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $168; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1986: $100 is worth $168 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1986/