$100 in 1978 is worth $174 in 1987,
because prices increased 74.2% over that period, an average of
6.36% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$174
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
74.2%
Average inflation rate
6.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$174
Price difference ($100 base)
$74.23
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1978 → 1987
$174
$100 in 1987 → 1978
$57.39
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1987
Between 1978 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 74.2%, which works out to an average of
6.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1987: the 1978 dollar
lost 42.6% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1987 at the same ratio, 1.74: $1,000 becomes
$1,742, and $10,000 becomes $17,423.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1987
$1.00
$1.74
$5.00
$8.71
$10.00
$17.42
$20.00
$34.85
$50.00
$87.12
$100
$174
$500
$871
$1,000
$1,742
$5,000
$8,712
$10,000
$17,423
$100,000
$174,233
$1,000,000
$1,742,331
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1987
Between 1978 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 110.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 35.9%, against 74.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.36%
$174
Medical care
8.62%
$211
Housing
6.95%
$183
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.78%
$180
Transportation
6.13%
$171
Energy
5.99%
$169
Food
5.19%
$158
Apparel
3.46%
$136
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.69% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1987 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1978, at end
1978–1980
12.42%
26.4%
$126
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$174
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $148 by
1982, on its way to $174 in 1987; 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 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $174; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1987: $100 is worth $174 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1987/