$100 in 1978 is worth $200 in 1990,
because prices increased 100.5% over that period, an average of
5.97% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$200
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
100.5%
Average inflation rate
5.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$200
Price difference ($100 base)
$100
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1978 → 1990
$200
$100 in 1990 → 1978
$49.89
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1990
Between 1978 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 100.5%, which works out to an average of
5.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1990: the 1978 dollar
lost 50.1% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1990 at the same ratio, 2.00: $1,000 becomes
$2,005, and $10,000 becomes $20,046.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1990
$1.00
$2.00
$5.00
$10.02
$10.00
$20.05
$20.00
$40.09
$50.00
$100
$100
$200
$500
$1,002
$1,000
$2,005
$5,000
$10,023
$10,000
$20,046
$100,000
$200,460
$1,000,000
$2,004,601
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1990
Between 1978 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 163.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 52.5%, against 100.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.97%
$200
Medical care
8.41%
$263
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.24%
$207
Housing
6.20%
$206
Transportation
5.74%
$195
Energy
5.70%
$194
Food
5.21%
$184
Apparel
3.58%
$152
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1990
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1990 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1978, at end
1978–1980
12.42%
26.4%
$126
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$200
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $159 by
1984, on its way to $200 in 1990; 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 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $200; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1990: $100 is worth $200 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1990/